A major new review published by DARE UK has provided the most comprehensive picture yet of the UK’s sensitive data research infrastructure. The review highlights a growing ecosystem of Trusted Research Environments (TREs), also known as Secure Data Environments (SDE’s), that enable secure access to sensitive data for research conducted in the public interest.
The UK Sensitive Data Research Infrastructure Landscape Review 2025, released in June 2026, draws on responses from 63 organisations across academia, government, charities and industry. The review found that at least 48 organisations now operate as TRE service providers, collectively supporting an estimated 6,700 active research projects involving sensitive data across the UK.
The review paints a picture of a sector that is becoming increasingly mature, technologically capable and interconnected, while also identifying challenges around sustainability, interoperability and regional disparities in infrastructure provision.
Image: DARE UK. SeRP contribution to UK sensitive data research landscape
Among the infrastructure platforms helping to underpin this ecosystem is the Secure eResearch Platform (SeRP), based within Swansea University. The DARE UK review identifies SeRP as one of the specialist TRE platform providers supporting organisations across the country. The review highlights service-platform relationships between TREs and the SeRP platform as part of the national collaboration network.
SeRP has played a pioneering role in the development of secure research infrastructure in the UK. SeRP provides the technical foundations on which organisations can build secure environments for the management and analysis of sensitive data. Rather than acting solely as a data repository, SeRP provides a flexible infrastructure framework that enables organisations to establish TRE services tailored to their governance, research and operational requirements, and supports their preparedness for data innovations like federation, synthetic data generation, artificial intelligence and large language models.
The DARE UK findings demonstrate the growing importance of this model. Over 20% of respondents said they relied on specialist TRE platform providers, with many others using hybrid arrangements that combine specialist platforms with cloud or on-premises infrastructure.
The review also highlights the increasing sophistication of the UK’s sensitive data infrastructure. Alongside its well-establish support for containerised research environments and advanced analytical tooling, SeRP now supports artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads, and offers high-performance computing capabilities.
These developments are particularly significant as researchers are increasingly working across multiple data domains. The review suggests demand is growing for infrastructure capable of securely linking health, education, employment and other datasets to address complex societal challenges.
For Wales, SeRP occupies a particularly important position within the national research data landscape through its technical enablement of the SAIL Databank, which is recognised internationally as a leading national TRE for multi-domain data research. SeRP also provides infrastructure that supports secure research services and collaborative projects extending beyond Wales into UK-wide and international partnerships, such the Dementias Platform UK Data Portal and British Columbia’s Health Data Portal in Canada.
The review concludes that stronger coordination, common standards and continued investment will be essential if the UK is to realise the full potential of sensitive data research. The review suggests that the UK now possesses a substantial and growing TRE ecosystem, with platforms like SeRP forming an important part of the national infrastructure that allows sensitive data to be used safely, securely and for public benefit.
SeRP contribution to UK sensitive data research landscape
