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ExplanationsPersonas
Target Audience
Everyone

Overview

Key to the successful adoption and implementation of Five Safes TES is understanding who will interact with the solution. To characterise our users we have identified the following personas:

  • TRE operators
  • Federation operators
  • Researchers
  • Contributors
  • Integrators

TRE operators

TREs operators are responsible for the management of the Trusted Research Environments (TREs) IT infrastructure. TRE operators are inclusive of governance, data management, and infrastructure management roles.

This description has been adopted from SATRE .

The responsibilities of TRE operators are defined through the SATRE specification :

  • Information Governance : Quality management, risk management, training delivery, member accreditation, and governance procedures that ensure TREs operate safely and ethically.
  • Computing Technology : End-user computing experience, infrastructure management, information security, and configuration management for secure data analysis environments.
  • Data Management : Data lifecycle management, identity and access management, output management, information discovery, and research metadata capabilities.
  • Supporting Capabilities : Financial management, public engagement and involvement, project management, procurement, and other essential operational functions.

Federation operators

Federation operators provide oversight, policy and decision-making for a federation of TREs, ensuring consistent standards and accountability.

This description has been adopted from SATRE .

The responsibilities of Federation operators are defined through the SATRE specification :

  • Federation governance, member accreditation, study management, information security, infrastructure management, data management, and financial management across multiple federated TRE partners.

Researchers

Researchers are provided access to data via a TRE, who intend to carry out analysis or conduct research using the data.

The responsibilities of a Researcher have been adopted from the UK Data Service :

  • Research should maximise benefits for individuals and society and minimise risk and harm.
  • The rights and dignity of individuals and groups should be respected.
  • Wherever possible, participation should be voluntary and appropriately informed.
  • Research should be conducted with integrity and transparency.
  • Lines of responsibility and accountability should be clearly defined.
  • Independence of research should be maintained and where conflicts of interest cannot be avoided they should be made explicit.

Contributors

People responsible for building the software infrastructure that can be used as a TRE.

This description has been adopted from SATRE .

The responsibilities of Developers is defined through the SATRE specification , where is considered a diverse role that could include:

  • Research Software Engineers, whose job involves applying professional software engineering expertise to challenges in scientific research.
  • Those who are contracted to build a TRE for a given institution or project.
  • Those who are creating bespoke platforms catering to the specific requirements of a project or dataset.
  • Those who build generalisable solutions to TRE provision that can be configured based on the research context.

Integrators

Integrators connect external systems, tools, and new capabilities to Five Safes TES. They use the architecture and APIs to bring innovative ideas into a federation, rather than changing the core Five Safes TES applications themselves.

Typical responsibilities include:

  • Setting up and using a local test environment to understand how submissions, TRE execution, and egress work together.
  • Integrating institutional or third-party platforms with the Submission, TRE Agent, and Egress interfaces.
  • Adapting analysis tools, containers, or TES-compatible backends so they can run under TRE policy.
  • Prototyping new methods, standards, or services that support federated analytics within the Five Safes constraints.

What’s next?

Depending on your interests, you may want to read the following pages:

Last updated on
OMOPSystem Architecture