Federated Research is driven to transform how researchers securely access and analyse data across multiple locations. Achieved by promoting independent organisations to work together through agreed-upon standards, protocols, principles, while keeping control over their own data, services, or platforms. There are four themes that guide the Federated Research collaborative:

Adopt Standards

• Use open standards to provide quality, consistent and reliable processes to reduce friction in deployment
• Developers and communities are supported in developing and connecting tools to a broader ecosystem

Build Trust

• Incorporate best-practice principles to guide handling of sensitive data
• Involvement with leading organisations to design and develop suitable research data infrastructure. These include HDR UK, DARE UK, ELIXIR, and EOSC
• Collaborate with the public to promote transparency, garner acceptance and ensure operation within social licence

Enable Federation

• Federation is more than software or any specific platform. It’s many, working together to form an ecosystem
• Beyond technical possibilities, there are elements of trust, autonomy, and governance to inform what is acceptable and useful
• There is no one-size-fits-all model of federation. How these networks are deployed is determined by trust, data maturity, technical infrastructure, and resources

Accelerate Research

• Conducting research on data that remains at the source maintains safety and security for people
• Expansion of what data is available promotes research that is inclusive and representative of diverse populations
• Improved efficiency of research lifecycle

This documentation activities across our headline programmes of work; Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and Data and Analytics Research Environments UK (DARE UK).