Secure Research Environment
INSIGHT’s Secure Research Environment (SRE) provides a dedicated, secure platform to provision approved researchers with access to anonymised data and supporting software.
Secure access to data
What is a Secure Research Environment?
A Secure Research Environment (SRE), also known as
Trusted Research Environment (TRE) or 'Data Safe Haven', is a highly secure computing environment that allows approved researchers to access health data remotely. The SRE is a widely accepted approach within the NHS for provisioning access to patient data, and an important tool for advancing scientific discovery.
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How does it work?
Once a Data Use Agreement is in place between the research organisation and data controller, access to data is set up and granted within the SRE. Once inside the SRE, researchers access the specific data they have requested, and carry out their analysis. Researchers can then export the results of their analysis - once approved by the SRE's data custodian - without the data leaving the secure environment.
INSIGHT's SRE
INSIGHT has established an SRE to provide researchers with a computing environment that meets the security levels required by regulation, with the power needed for analysis of large datasets.
Once a researcher is approved to access data via the SRE, INSIGHT sets up a virtual machine in the environment, installed with the requested software tools. Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust serves as the data controller, overseeing export of the researcher's final analysis from the SRE and ensuring no patient data leaves the environment.
In addition to the SRE, INSIGHT may provide approved researchers with alternative data access methods, such as data egress, subject to meeting security conditions.
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