A partnership spanning 10,000km

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in October 2024, the partnership between Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF) continues to shape the future of international health data research. This collaboration seeks to accelerate the uptake of trustworthy data use to improve health outcomes and drive discoveries that benefit people’s lives. It brings together a wider group of partners, including Singapore’s MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT), the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), together with the HDR UK Federated Analytics programme, involving Swansea University, the University of Nottingham, the University of Manchester and the University of Dundee.

The project team during a recent visit to the MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT) in Singapore, collaborating to deploy tools that bridge healthcare innovation between Singapore and the UK. Credit: MOHT

Why international collaboration matters for health data research

The partnership focuses on tackling health challenges that only large-scale, diverse data and international cooperation can address, such as cancer, diabetes and rare diseases. By harnessing shared data infrastructure and expertise, it seeks to drive improvements in healthcare and research capabilities in Singapore, the UK and globally.

Building the infrastructure for secure global research

A major focus of the partnership is strengthening secure data infrastructure to enable global research. Trusted Research Environments (TREs) are central to governing sensitive health data in both Singapore and the UK, allowing researchers to apply for access and conduct analyses within a secure setting where the data itself never leaves. While this approach is safe, secure, and protects privacy, it limits researchers’ ability to combine datasets across multiple sites (or countries) and then perform the analyses.

Enabling federation: Connecting TREs across borders

To overcome this, the partners are advancing a federated approach that connects multiple TREs and safely enables distributed analysis, where data stays local and only aggregated results are returned to researchers. MOH, GovTech, A*STAR, and the HDR UK Federated Analytics programme are now working together to establish an international, federation-ready TRE network that will allow researchers to tackle major shared health priorities like cancer and diabetes.

Planned activities in the coming months include:

  • Deploying open-source federated tools Bunny and Five Safes TES by the Singapore TRE TRUST
  • Establishing appropriate information governance for the federated Singapore-UK TRE network
  • Identifying relevant use-cases and supporting data standardisation of local datasets
  • Running an exemplar federated analysis on cancer and diabetes datasets from Singapore and the UK

Looking ahead: transforming global health research

This project continues the longstanding relationship between Singapore and the UK, building upon shared values and cooperation between the countries. The impact will be significant, advancing scientific insight as well as the governance, technology, and culture needed for federated health research. Here’s how this collaboration will drive scientific and societal impact:

Accelerating research into high-priority diseases for global populations:

  • Enable new insights by analysing data from diverse populations across organisational and national borders
  • Demonstrate the feasibility of global population health studies through exemplar use-cases in cancer and diabetes
  • Establish a federated research data infrastructure that allows researchers to run analyses across the Singapore-UK TRE network

Advancing infrastructure for secure, cross-institutional health data research:

  • Innovate technology that maintains patient privacy, support distributed analytics on global datasets, and meets local regulatory requirements
  • Demonstrate interoperability by connecting independent, cross-border TREs, preserving local control while enabling federation
  • Deploy trustworthy open-source software, aligned with international standards such as Five Safes, GA4GH TES and OMOP CDM, to provide a scalable, sustainable model for international federated research

Final thoughts

During a recent visit to Singapore, having the opportunity to talk and hear from the teams highlighted the shared challenges of this work and that meaningful progress for health data research requires more than technology. We need trust, shared purpose and understanding for people to actively participate and belong. As the work advances, we invite the wider research community to follow its developments and explore how similar models can empower the research community.

To get involved, join the HDR UK Federated Analytics programme community here.