SAIL Databank is a recognised and accredited Trusted Research Environment (TRE). TRE’s are highly secure computing environments that provide remote access to health, social or administrative data for approved users. Any research project approved by a TRE needs to demonstrate the potential to improve people’s health or wellbeing.
TRE’s adhere to the ‘5 safes’ concept: Safe people; Safe projects; Safe settings; Safe outputs; Safe data. Safe Researcher Training ensures that only ‘Safe people’ are granted access to SAIL data. Therefore, researchers must demonstrate they have the skills, knowledge and experience to use the data safely and effectively.
Before being granted access to the SAIL Databank TRE, users must have completed the appropriate training. Further information about training courses can be obtained from the following providers:
- MRC. Research, GDPR and Confidentiality – what you really need to know. An eLearning course from MRC introducing MRC’s expectations for good research practice. It is a series of 10 bite-sized e-learning modules accompanied by a collection of resources to help researchers get to grips with the principles of GDPR and the common law of confidentiality for research. A certificate will be issued on completion of the quiz.
- ONS. Research Accreditation Service (RAS) application. Allows fully accredited researchers to carry out analysis and produce outputs on projects in Digital Economy Act (DEA) 2017 accredited environments such as SAIL Databank. To be a full accredited researcher, individuals must have an undergraduate degree (or higher) including a significant proportion of maths or statistics or be able to demonstrate at least three years quantitative research experience.
Other equivalent training is accepted. In addition to completing the relevant training, all users must provide evidence of research career via CV and belong to a recognised Institution.
