Developing technical capability and capacity for UK Secure Data Environments

Secure Data Environments are critical cloud-hosted platforms that are designed to enable research and protect patient data. They support doctors and healthcare professionals to make informed and better decisions about the care we receive and allow researchers to discover new ways to treat people. For these Secure Data Environments to be set up and maintained, we need a workforce that can understand the technical aspects of these digital environments, the regulations that ensure health data is managed in a safe and secure manner, and how research is conducted and prioritised.

Currently this workforce is limited, it is difficult to recruit, and it is increasingly difficult to retain people who possess this unique blend of skills. This is partially due to a lack of availability of a comprehensive training, a community-building programme, and a formalised career/skills pathway that enable these hybrid roles to progress within an academic research environment. Our proposal seeks to address these issues.

We aim to attract individuals who want to apply technical skills to a societal cause at different career stages. We will build a community and develop a new cadre of Research Technical Professionals across the Northwest of England (e.g., Manchester, Liverpool and Lancaster). We will provide at least six short-term student placements for those studying on undergraduate/masters programmes in relevant subjects across the host institutions, allowing us to raise awareness of the role, and bringing young talent into the field. We will create and recruit three new full-time trainees, one based at each site, who will complete two six-month placements working on key aspects of Secure Data Environment development and be mentored by technical experts. They will also complete, (alongside three current RTPs) industry certified training in relevant technologies and standards. In addition, all will be able to receive training provided by academic programmes, which underpin NHS professional development, in working with health data to fully understand the complexities and priorities around it. We will engage with the wider community by hosting events and providing access to masterclasses and further training developed by the hub.

Our multi-disciplinary team brings together experts with technical, research and capacity building expertise from universities and the NHS, who are all actively involved with Secure Data Environments in the Northwest of England. They have first-hand experience of the challenges that are involved in the development of Secure Data Environments, and the skills required to address them. They have pioneered the technical role within academia, and the development of innovative training solutions. We will use this unique opportunity to develop the wider SDE community, while co-developing a skills framework (mapped to an industry standard) that we will use in conjunction with career pathways to provide a longer lasting sustainable workforce.