Discover Data on the Gateway
The Health Data Research Innovation Gateway (the 'Gateway') search engine or 'portal' provides a common entry point for researchers and innovators to discover and request access to health datasets, tools and resources for vital research, helping to enable discoveries that improve people's lives.
The Gateway is managed by Health Data Research UK (HDR UK). It is a key component of our technology strategy, funded as part of HDR UK’s 2023-2028 core work to accelerate the trustworthy use of health data for research.
It was previously supported by UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (through the ‘Data to early diagnosis and precision medicine challenge’) as part of the Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) Programme.
The purpose of the Gateway
Health datasets in the UK are held by thousands of different organisations. It can, therefore, be difficult for researchers and innovators to discover what datasets exist. The Gateway was established in 2020 as a common entry point for researchers and innovators to discover and request access to UK health-related datasets. The Gateway lists information about each dataset, helping researchers and innovators to decide whether a dataset could be useful for their research.
The Gateway was created with input from patients, the public, researchers, and innovators working in health and care in the UK.
View and download the HDR Innovation Gateway one pager
How the Gateway works
The Gateway portal helps researchers and innovators find health datasets that exist in the UK, as well as associated health data resources such as tools, research projects and publications.
The Gateway does not hold or store any datasets or patient or health data but rather acts as a portal to allow the discovery of datasets for researchers and innovators to request access to. A dataset is a collection of related individual pieces of data but in the case of health data, the identifiable information is removed and data is de-identified where possible.
To request access to health datasets via the Gateway, account users must sign in and then follow the access request process. Only once requests have been through the thorough process will access to the data be granted.
Read the Gateway privacy policy here
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