added TREvolution news item

Author: stain

_posts/2025-03-13-trevolution.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: Launch of TREvolution
+date: 2025-04-13
+categories: announcements projects
+---
+
+# Launch of TREvolution
+
+_New £6.2 million programme to build and test new capabilities for sensitive data research._
+
+![TREvolution logo](/images/logo/trevolution.png)
+
+[UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)](https://www.ukri.org/) has awarded £4.94 million towards a £6.20 million programme, *TREvolution*, to advance the development of key technical requirements and capabilities for UK [*Trusted Research Environments (TREs)*](https://www.researchdata.scot/accessing-data/information-for-researchers/tres-and-data-access/#:~:text=Trusted%20Research%20Environments%2C%20or%20TREs%2C%20are%20highly%20secure,and%20work%20on%20approved%20projects%20of%20public%20benefit.) as part of DARE UK.
+
+Awarded under the [DARE UK (Phase 2) Transformational Programme](https://dareuk.org.uk/how-we-work/ongoing-activities/), TREvolution will be jointly led by five leading research institutions in the UK: the Universities of Dundee, Manchester, Nottingham, Swansea and West of England.
+
+The TREvolution programme of work will be delivered in collaboration with NHS Scotland, Lancashire Teaching Hospital, Durham University, Lancaster University, University College London, University of Queensland, University of Basel and University of Cape Town.
+
+## TREvolution challenges
+
+TREvolution will address challenges associated with enhancing data access and analysis within **TREs** -- Trusted Research Environments where approved researchers can securely access sensitive data for research to benefit the public, such as national public health and population-level surveys.
+
+TREs in the UK are internationally renowned for establishing the [Five Safes framework](https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/help/secure-lab/what-is-the-five-safes-framework/), but they have some limitations for researchers. The manual application processes and disclosure checks make it challenging to keep up with today's scientific needs, like federated learning, analysis across sectors and research domains, and large-scale correlation studies.
+
+TREvolution will address these challenges to evolve UK TRE capabilities across three themes:
+
+-   **TRE reference architecture and implementations**: Standardising UK TRE architectures to enable seamless interoperability.
+-   **AI and semi-automated output checking**: Enhancing research output review processes to ensure non-disclosure of personal information.
+-   **Federated analysis**: Enabling secure analysis of datasets stored in multiple TREs located across the UK.
+
+## Background & funding 
+
+This project builds on existing work done by the delivery partners, with experience across the themes, as well as the [*DARE UK (Phase 1) Driver Projects*](https://dareuk.org.uk/how-we-work/previous-activities/dare-uk-phase-1-driver-projects/), which developed initial versions of some of the key components of TREvolution.
+
+The funding call leading up to the award invited teams that delivered specific DARE UK Driver Projects to take the projects to the next stage of maturity. A single joint bid was submitted by TREvolution, a collaboration that builds on synergies between the Driver Projects teams to enhance the components, make them fully interoperable, and transition them into capabilities ready for use in UK TREs.
+
+After an independent panel review process involving key experts and the public, £4,940,092 was awarded, being 80% of the full economic cost (£6,150,739) to support TREvolution from March 2025 to March 2027, ensuring that the outputs developed can be tested, refined, and adopted in real-world research settings.
+
+TREvolution is the first of three initiatives under the DARE UK (Phase 2) Transformational Programme, advancing the further development and testing of core TRE components and capabilities developed in the first phase of the DARE UK programme.
+
+Alongside TREvolution, further funding will be provided to support the *early adoption* of these capabilities by UK TREs and data services and to demonstrate their application through real-world research exemplars. The goal is to showcase the potential for a connected and efficient national network of secure data infrastructures.
+
+## DARE UK and TREvolution
+
+DARE UK Interim Director, Professor Emily Jefferson, said: 
+
+> TREvolution marks a step change in our efforts to transform the UK's secure data research ecosystem. This important work will ensure that key capabilities---such as federated analysis and enhanced output checking supporting the training of AI models---are not just theoretical advancements but practical, real-world solutions that enhance the UK's ability to do impactful research. We look forward to working closely with the TREvolution team to advance these innovations and drive meaningful progress in how sensitive data is accessed and used for the public good.
+
+Dr Stian Soiland-Reyes, co-lead of the eScience lab at The University of Manchester, said:
+
+> We are pleased to see DARE UK leading the effort of establishing the next generation Trusted Research Environment architecture, with impact already noticed internationally. We are looking forward to setting Open Research practices and standards into action for sensitive data analysis, and to help build public trust in a federated and secure TRE infrastructure, in order to make powerful computational data analyses accessible for researchers across disciplines.
+
+The TREvolution team will work closely with the DARE UK Delivery Team and early adopter TREs, fostering stronger collaboration and synergy as these critical capabilities are integrated into the UK's secure data research infrastructure ecosystem.
+
+### DARE UK
+
+DARE UK is a data research infrastructure programme empowering data custodians, scientists, and technology experts working alongside the public to deliver a national network of secure data infrastructures for better research outcomes in the UK. DARE UK is funded by [*UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)*](https://www.ukri.org/) under the [*Digital Research Infrastructure Programme*](https://www.ukri.org/what-we-do/creating-world-class-research-and-innovation-infrastructure/digital-research-infrastructure/) and led by [*Health Data Research (HDR UK)*](https://www.hdruk.ac.uk/) and [*ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK)*](https://www.adruk.org/).
+
+## eScience Lab in TREvolution
+
+The [*eScience Lab*](https://esciencelab.org.uk/) in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Manchester is leading the TREvolution approach to [*FAIR*](https://book.the-turing-way.org/reproducible-research/rdm/rdm-fair) (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and transparent analysis of sensitive data. 
+
+The University of Manchester in collaboration of DARE phase 1 established [*Five Safes RO-Crate*](https://www.researchobject.org/ro-crate/5s-crate): a mechanism of structurally documenting the evidence of computational processes, along with the chain of human reviews for legally accessing sensitive data. 
+
+Five Safes RO-Crate is based on open Web standards and wider community efforts, has been adopted by several research projects in the European Open Science Cloud ([*EOSC*](https://eosc.eu/)) including [*EOSC-ENTRUST*](https://eosc-entrust.eu/), and forms the basis for the common metadata standard of *TREvolution*.
+
+
+The eScience Lab is expanding on its effort in the [*federated analytics*](https://federated-analytics.ac.uk/) programme in [*Health Data Research UK*](https://www.hdruk.ac.uk/), building on two decades of experience providing computational analysis and data infrastructure to internationally support open research practices in life sciences and other disciplines.