Sensitive Data Skills Summit

Event overview:

Building the skills, training and careers needed to handle sensitive data responsibly

Join colleagues from across the health and data research community for a focused Skills Summit exploring training, careers and skills for professionals working with sensitive data.

The Summit is particularly aimed at people working to develop training, skills and career pathways in this area, while welcoming anyone with an interest in the challenges and opportunities involved in building the sensitive data workforce.

The morning will bring together colleagues involved in workforce development, education, professional development and career planning, alongside those working directly with sensitive data. It will provide an opportunity to share approaches, learn from others and explore how we can better support the people and skills needed to make sensitive data accessible, trustworthy and useful for research and innovation.

The Summit will explore:

The skills and capabilities needed for handling sensitive data
Training and professional development opportunities
Career pathways and approaches to attracting and retaining talent
Sharing good practice and learning across organisations
Opportunities to collaborate and strengthen the wider skills community

The Summit is open to all professionals with an interest in training, careers and skills relating to sensitive data — you do not need to be attending the TRE Community Event to take part.

Come and connect with others, share your experience and help shape the training, skills and career pathways that will support the future of sensitive data.

Intended audience:

This event is for stakeholders interested in training for Sensitive Data Skills/TRE/SDE staff/data processers/governance.

Capacity: 70 attendees

Registration fees and travel bursaries:

The event is free to attend. Around 20 professional bursaries are available for this on suitability and remit. The bursaries can cover travel and/or accommodation that costs up to a maximum of £350 per person (will be reimbursed after the event upon production of receipts).

Applications for bursaries close on Thursday 23rd October. You can find more information about bursaries below.

Keep an eye on this page for updates to the agenda.

Agenda

From Competencies to Careers: Growing the SDE Workforce.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionise many aspects of society. Applications trained on sensitive data deliver benefits across a wide range of sectors, including education, social policies, and healthcare. Training appropriately all the stakeholders involved in such projects is essential. Everyone must understand the risks, mitigations, and their responsibilities to ensure privacy is protected and no harm is caused to individuals. The TREvolution AI team is developing role-specific training materials for researchers, data controllers, data stewards, members of the public, and output checkers. These resources aim to support the safe and trustworthy use of AI within Trusted Research Environments (TREs), while maintaining high standards of privacy, governance, regulatory compliance, and public trust.
Access to sensitive data alone is not enough. Researchers need ongoing training, peer support, mentoring, and communities of practice to develop the confidence and skills required to use data effectively and responsibly.
AI-Triage: Streamlining output checking in an AI-focused world.
Talk TBC
Talk TBC
Building a network – questionnaire – would you join a network, what would you expect the network to facilitate?

Bursary FAQ

The bursary is open to all attendees who do not have access to other sources of funding which would cover their travel expenses. Please check with your funder if they are able to support this activity.

You do not need to have been previously involved in an HDR UK activity to apply for the bursary.
You can apply for a bursary through the Eventbrite registration page. If you have applied for a travel bursary, please do not book any travel and/or accommodation until we have confirmed that your application for the bursary has been successful; otherwise, we may not be able to cover the costs.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss anything further, please email susmita.datta@hdruk.ac.uk
If we are able to offer you a bursary, you will be asked to organise your own accommodation and travel as needed and comply with HDR UK’s expense policy (this will be communicated to successful applicants). We will also require you to fill in a form so that we may set you up on the finance system to enable us to provide the bursary of up to £350 within one month from the event.

We will provide you with detailed on how to submit your receipts. Please note that you will need to keep your receipts for us to be able to process your bursary.

Registration

To register for this workshop please click below.

Speakers and Panellists

Alba Crespi Boixader, researcher at the Health Informatics Centre, University of Dundee

Alba works on methods and guidance to ensure that AI and ML research can be conducted safely while protecting the privacy of sensitive data. She is part of the TREvolution AI team which is developing role-specific training materials for researchers, data controllers, data stewards, members of the public, and output checkers. These resources aim to support the safe and trustworthy use of AI within Trusted Research Environments (TREs), while maintaining high standards of privacy, governance, regulatory compliance, and public trust.

James Friel, research software engineer at the Health Informatics Centre at the University of Dundee

James maintains the Research Data Management Platform and supports the transformation of research into operational efficiencies. Working with TREvolution funded researchers, they are developing practical techniques to reduce the risks associated with releasing trained AI models from a TRE.

Dr Hollydawn Murray, Programme Director, Research Environment at Health Data Research UK

Dr Hollydawn Murray works with the health data science community to support and embed good research practices, responsible data use and valuing diverse roles and outputs. She is PI of the Evidence-based Curation Skills project, helping identify and develop the skills and capabilities needed to work effectively with sensitive data. Hollydawn is a longstanding open research advocate and upskilled data scientist, with a PhD in from the National University of Ireland Galway.

Ruth Norris, Research Programme Manager at the University of Manchester

Ruth has a 20+ year track record delivering change in both commercial and academic sectors and is currently Research Programme Manager at the University of Manchester. Ruth provides senior operational leadership and support for multi-disciplinary teams to deliver digital health and technology research and innovation, facilitating collaboration to magnify impact across the UK and internationally. Ruth is an advocate and agent for change through the application of team science and interdisciplinary methods to research and innovation and co-founded and leads the Teams Build Dreams training and development platform.

Richard Welpton, Head of Data Services Infrastructure at the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Richard oversees ESRC's investments in data service infrastructure, which includes UK Data Service, CLOSER, the Census Longitudinal Study Research Support Units, and is also ESRC's representative for the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure programme. Richard leads ESRC’s Future Data Services programme. Prior to joining UKRI, Richard worked in roles supporting researchers with access and use of secure data, including at the Office for National Statistics, UK Data Archive (where he helped to set up and manage the SecureLab, and participated in Data without Boundaries), Valuation Office Agency, Cancer Research UK and The Health Foundation, as well as consultancy roles.

Bogusia Wojciechowska, Senior Research Manager at the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Dr Wojciechowska leads strategic research capacity-building activities across ADR UK. With a background in social and economic history and expertise in migration research using historical data, she is passionate about helping researchers use sensitive data to deliver public benefit. Over the past six years, she has played a key role in developing ADR UK's research capacity-building portfolio, including fellowships, training, mentoring, peer support, and community-building initiatives. Her achievements include establishing national researcher support networks, developing evaluation frameworks, and expanding opportunities to access and use sensitive administrative data across the UK.

Event types

HDR UK Event