SAIL Databank News. Published 30th September 2025
Ashley Akbari is Professor of Population Data Science Research at Swansea University, and is a theme lead with ADR Wales and the Head of SAIL User and Data Support Services (UDSS) & Research Innovation at SAIL Databank. Here, Ashley discusses the findings and considerations for future work gathered from a workshop conducted by the SAFER project.
At SAIL, we’re working towards understanding the key challenges and considerations in order to enable federation as part of a secure, trusted and transparent UK data research infrastructure. That means listening, learning, and engaging across the sector and at the recent ADR UK Conference in Cardiff, we had the opportunity to do just that. As part of the SAFER: SAIL Advancing Federated Exploration and Readiness project, we brought together a highly engaged group of stakeholders for a workshop designed to share knowledge, challenge ideas and build a collaborative vision. Here’s what happened, what we learned, and what comes next.
What is SAFER?
SAFER is a UKRI-funded, DARE-UK backed project to explore solutions to TRE variances in legal and governance rules that makes large-scale federated analysis challenging. SAIL Databank will review its policies, consult with stakeholders, and develop governance models to overcome these barriers. SAFER is one of six projects funded in this way by UKRI and DARE UK with the aim of integrating and testing capabilities to enhance key aspects of operations in Trusted Research Environments (TREs). Areas of focus included federated analysis, support for AI training, semi-automated output checking and TRE reference architecture implementations within specific UK TREs and data services.
A full house and a rich mix of voices
We had over 25 people attend the workshop, and we were delighted to see such a diverse mix of backgrounds in the room, demonstrating just how relevant and engaging this topic is right now. Our participants included academic and applied researchers, colleagues from government departments and policy units, data custodians and owners, research funders and research support bodies, as well as public contributors and patient representatives. This diversity made for a truly inclusive and dynamic environment, which is exactly what’s needed when thinking about the future of federated Trusted Research Environments (TREs).
What did we cover in the workshop?
We kicked off with a brief introduction and overview presentations. This covered the technical models of federation being considered across the UK, emerging insights from our ongoing stakeholder engagement and key questions we’re exploring within the SAFER project and across SAIL.
Participants moved between three themed tables, each focused on a different area of federation. The first group started with a blank canvas; the second and third groups built on the previous group’s ideas, with facilitators providing brief handovers between each round. Contributions were recorded on shared boards, with Post-it Notes used to represent individual preferences and choices. This format enabled us to foster an evolving conversation and gather a wide range of input from all attendees.
Key Learnings and reflections
The workshop gave the SAFER project and SAIL the valuable opportunity to deepen our understanding of the opportunities and challenges in enabling federation within the UK’s TRE ecosystem.
What we took away:
- Reinforcement of key themes we’ve heard in previous engagements – affirming we’re on the right track in some areas.
- New insights and questions we hadn’t fully explored – helping shape our thinking going forward.
- A clearer sense of the policy, process and operational considerations we’ll need to address.
- A continued reminder, which is at the core of the SAFER project and SAIL, of the importance of transparency and public trust in designing federated systems.
Importantly, the session also surfaced new questions from participants, providing us with questions that will now form part of SAIL’s broader learning agenda.
What’s Next?
The insights from this session are being fed directly into the SAFER project and SAIL’s ongoing work. We’re now planning an in-person SAFER event in October to build on these learnings, and, of course, continued collaboration with key partners across the UK as we work towards a joint understanding of what’s required to securely, appropriately, and transparently operationalise federation for SAIL, ADR, DARE UK, and others.
A huge thank you to everyone who attended the workshop; your contributions were thoughtful, generous, and essential to helping us move forward in a truly collaborative way. As we continue our engagements and conversations, we look forward to continuing to work together and welcome those interested in staying in touch.
Read blog on SAIL Databank’s website: https://saildatabank.com/exploring-the-future-of-federation-highlights-from-our-workshop-at-the-adr-uk-conference/