UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has awarded £4.94 million towards a £6.20 million programme, TREvolution, to advance the development of key technical requirements and capabilities for sensitive data research in UK Trusted Research Environments (TREs) as part of DARE UK.
Awarded under the DARE UK (Phase 2) Transformational Programme, TREvolution will be jointly led by five leading research institutions in the UK: the Universities of Dundee, Manchester, Nottingham, Swansea and West of England.
The programme of work will be delivered in collaboration with NHS Scotland, Lancashire Teaching Hospital, Durham University, Lancaster University, University College London, University of Queensland, University of Basel and University of Cape Town.
TREvolution will address challenges associated with enhancing data access and analysis within TREs – secure environments where approved researchers can access sensitive data for research to benefit the public, such as national public health and population-level surveys.
TREs in the UK are internationally renowned for establishing the Five Safes framework, but they have some limitations for researchers. The manual application processes and disclosure checks make it challenging to keep up with today’s scientific needs, like federated learning, analysis across sectors and research domains, and large-scale correlation studies.
TREvolution will address these challenges to evolve UK TRE capabilities across three themes:
- TRE reference architecture and implementations: Standardising UK TRE architectures to enable seamless interoperability.
- AI and semi-automated output checking: Enhancing research output review processes to ensure non-disclosure of personal information.
- Federated analysis: Enabling secure analysis of datasets stored in multiple TREs located across the UK.
This project builds on existing work done by the delivery partners, with experience across the themes, as well as the DARE UK (Phase 1) Driver Projects, which developed initial versions of some of the key components of TREvolution.
At Swansea University, The DARE UK-funded (phase 1), SeRP led project, TELEPORT, created a novel, software-defined solution of ‘pop-up’ TREs. This work involved federating health data from Wales and Scotland in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and Public Health Scotland. TELEPORT demonstrated the transformational potential to move beyond siloed research to nationally-scaled data research to improve scientific output and health outcomes.
Read more about TELEPORT here in the final project report
With this additional phase 2 funding, SeRP will look to move the platform to a production-ready state and consider a wider set of use cases beyond that of the initial project. This includes improved networking and communication between TREs with a technically secure, project-specific, interconnected network for federation. The method of access to each participating TRE varies so phase 2 will also look to formalise a combined approach to information governance based on the project and its current partners.
Co-director of SeRP, Professor Simon Thompson, said, “The TELEPORT project provided proof-of-concept that data federation and analytics is a workable solution to bring together disparately held, national datasets, for greater societal insight and benefit. We at SeRP also collaborated with the universities of Nottingham and Manchester on the TRE-FX phase 1 project, a different model of federation that securely deploys research objects into participating TREs for aggregated analysis. In phase 2, we will also explore conceptual integration of these two federation models, how they compare, and a potential two-phased data egress approach. These federated networks have the potential to work in combination or provide TREs and data owners with an operational choice based on the policies and preferences of each.”
The funding call leading up to the award invited teams that delivered specific DARE UK Driver Projects to take the projects to the next stage of maturity. A single joint bid was submitted by TREvolution, a collaboration that builds on synergies between the Driver Projects teams to enhance the components, make them fully interoperable, and transition them into capabilities ready for use in UK TREs.
After an independent panel review process involving key experts and the public, £4,940,092 was awarded, being 80% of the full economic cost (£6,150,739) to support TREvolution from March 2025 to March 2027, ensuring that the outputs developed can be tested, refined, and adopted in real-world research settings.
TREvolution is the first of three initiatives under the DARE UK (Phase 2) Transformational Programme, advancing the further development and testing of core TRE components and capabilities developed in the first phase of the DARE UK programme.
Alongside TREvolution, further funding will be provided to support the early adoption of these capabilities by UK TREs and data services and to demonstrate their application through real-world research exemplars. The goal is to showcase the potential for a connected and efficient national network of secure data infrastructures.
DARE UK Interim Director, Professor Emily Jefferson, said, “TREvolution marks a step change in our efforts to transform the UK’s secure data research ecosystem. This important work will ensure that key capabilities—such as federated analysis and enhanced output checking supporting the training of AI models—are not just theoretical advancements but practical, real-world solutions that enhance the UK’s ability to do impactful research. We look forward to working closely with the TREvolution team to advance these innovations and drive meaningful progress in how sensitive data is accessed and used for the public good.”
The TREvolution team will work closely with the DARE UK Delivery Team and early adopter TREs, fostering stronger collaboration and synergy as these critical capabilities are integrated into the UK’s secure data research infrastructure ecosystem.
Follow SeRP on Linkedin and X (formally Twitter)
Follow DARE UK on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter), and subscribe to our newsletter to follow TREvolution’s progress.
