COVID-19 Data and Connectivity
Data and Connectivity connects UK health data, accelerating research on COVID-19 and enabling stronger, research evidence-informed policies for COVID-19 response, pandemic recovery and future health threat preparedness.
At the start of the pandemic, it was hard for researchers to access the data they needed to rapidly answer high priority questions about COVID-19 response. This limited the evidence available to policymakers to inform key decisions.
Data and Connectivity was initiated by Sir Patrick Vallance as one of the UK’s COVID-19 National Core Studies Programmes in October 2020 to work with policymakers, data custodians, providers of Trusted Research Environments, researchers and the public to make COVID-19-relevant data available for research with greater speed, efficiency and scale.
This enables stronger, research evidence-informed policies for COVID-19 response, pandemic recovery and future health threat preparedness.
Data & Connectivity works to:
- Map and link data required for priority COVID-19 research, for example linking ethnicity data with vaccination data for research into inequalities in vaccine uptake.
- Make data easier to securely access and analyse for researchers undertaking urgent COVID-19 research by improving the network of national Trusted Research Environments – the infrastructure that provides researchers with secure access to health data.
- Fund research using these datasets to answer important questions relating to the pandemic in areas of highest priority to policymakers.
- Work with patients and members of the public to ensure their voice is embedded in decision making about how their data is used for COVID-19 research.
Who we are
The partners and people who work with Data and Connectivity
Access COVID-19 data
Explore the COVID-19 data assets and infrastructure made available to researches by the Data and Connectivity National Core Study
Data and Connectivity Projects
Projects funded and supported by the Data and Connectivity Programme.
Progress and Impact
Progress against Data and Connectivity's aim to connect UK health data and accelerate research on COVID-19.
Patient and Public Involvement
Data and Connectivity work with patients and members of the public to ensure they are involved in decision making about research that uses public data.
COVID-19 National Core Studies
The COVID-19 National Core Studies are a crucial part of the UK’s ongoing pandemic response. They are enabling the UK to use health data and research to inform both our near and long-term...
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