Connect 4

About Connect 4

Connect 4 was a project that investigated the federation of data services across the UK’s four national Trusted Research Environments (TREs). It focused on the Integrated Data Service (IDS) — a major cross-government project for which the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the delivery lead — and the Scottish National Safe Haven.

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under the ‘Future data services: pilots to enhance data services for the future’ programme (ES/Z502972/1), Connect 4 was a multi-partner project led by EPCC at the University of Edinburgh with Research Data Scotland (RDS), ONS, Public Health Scotland and National Records of Scotland.

The project started in April 2024 and concluded in December 2025.

Our work and impact

The challenge

A lot of the data kept by public organisations (such as Government departments) contains sensitive data about UK citizens and businesses. Since the Digital Economy Act 2017, progress has been made to enable accredited researchers to access this data for research in the public benefit. Accredited researchers can submit proposals to a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) to gain access to data held by public sector organisations, and this approach ensures that sensitive data is kept safe and secure.

However, it can be challenging for researchers to answer research questions where datasets must be combined before analysis, and where two or more datasets are each owned by different TREs. The project team started by identifying two key barriers:

• A researcher cannot see the exact data held within datasets and – based on the available metadata for these datasets – cannot always assess whether a combination is feasible or will lead to a sensible analysis.

• The policies that govern access are specific between the data owners and the TRE, and can vary across TREs.

Connect 4 explored these barriers and outlined potential improvements to help overcome them.

Our impact

The project team created three work packages to explore and develop solutions to the most significant issues facing researchers accessing data across multiple UK TREs.

1. Developing a roadmap

RDS led the first work package, producing a roadmap of the improvements and arrangements required to allow researchers to discover, apply for and analyse data held at UK national TREs through a single front door.

Explore the roadmap

2. Delivering the roadmap and enhancing metadata

The second work package focused on how the roadmap could be delivered. This included considering information governance; the standards, policies and procedures already in place; and identifying areas for alignment.

The project team developed a shared service model to shape the delivery of the changes outlined in the roadmap across TREs.

Other work in this area, led by EPCC, explored improvements to metadata about data held by ONS and the Scottish National Safe Haven. This element of the project developed software that automatically creates rich metadata that would help researchers to understand whether datasets would be useful for analysis and therefore decide if the investment to combine datasets would be worthwhile.

The work was informed by researchers through a survey, and the Scottish National Safe Haven was used to test and validate the work that the Connect 4 metadata team had carried out. The team produced papers outlining methods for semi-automated metadata augmentation and a metadata enhancement implementation plan for the SNSH that lays the path for future work.

3. Trial use case

The third work package explored what was needed to lay the foundations for ongoing federation across UK national TREs. The team attempted a trial federated data access use case across ONS and the Scottish National Safe Haven. This raised a number of challenges and the Connect 4 team proposed improvements through a report on their learnings towards frictionless data federation across UK national TREs.

Improvements to the Researcher Access Service

In addition to the three work packages, the Connect 4 project was expanded to include work to align the Research Data Access Pathway – RDS’s streamlined data access pathway within the Researcher Access Service – with the statutory accreditation criteria of the Digital Economy Act 2017.

A pilot of a new standardised application form explored how Research Data Access Pathway criteria could be aligned with other services across the UK, including the Office for National Statistics, the UK Data Service, SAIL Databank and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

This new application form is an important building block towards achieving one application, one review and accreditation for cross-nation research carried out through a shared service.

The project team also reviewed the RDS metadata catalogue, recommending improvements to boost interoperability, and explored federation through the Researcher Access Service, defining potential next steps beyond the Connect 4 project.

Impact on the research data ecosystem

Research which utilises data about people, places and businesses across the entire UK has the potential to create evidence that benefits millions of people. However, complex systems and processes for discovering and applying for this data can create barriers that prevent valuable insights from being generated.

By outlining possible approaches for federating data access across the UK, the Connect 4 project laid the foundations for a truly UK-wide system for research using public sector data.

Connect 4 was the first step on a longer journey, to establish foundational knowledge and outputs that can be utilised and built upon to make progress via future funding. Through this project we have:

• increased understanding of researcher needs and metadata standards and requirements

• produced a planned approach to establishing a Minimum Viable Service and future maturity, and

• developed partnerships and outlined first steps in progressing towards cross-nation indexing and linkage solutions

Jen Muir, Scottish Safe Haven Network Manager and Connect 4 project lead for RDS, said:

“The Connect 4 project was an exciting, vital and truly collaborative project, and I’m delighted with what we were able to achieve. The project outputs are the first step in delivering federated data access across the four UK nations, and I’m pleased that RDS led a lot of this important work. Thank you to everyone who was involved. My involvement in Connect 4 has been invaluable in my role as Scottish Safe Haven Network Manager, where we are collaboratively moving towards greater network federation across Scotland.”

Kostas Kavoussanakis, EPCC Safe Haven Services Manager and lead on Connect 4, said:

“Connect 4 was an ambitious endeavour towards frictionless, UK-wide, impactful data-driven research and innovation. It is the seed for what needs to become co-ordinated action across the UK. I’m pleased with what we were able to deliver with the project, and I’m excited to see where the outputs we’ve created go from here.”

Next steps

Collaboration was a key element of the Connect 4 project, including cross-nation indexing workshops with experts from each UK nation. Ongoing collaboration will enable the project teams to continue to work towards a shared goal of an interoperable research data service in the UK.

This will include engaging with services and data owners to identify datasets held in different environments that can become pilot datasets in an early federated data service.

The outputs from Connect 4 will enable leading data experts across the UK to develop and test different parts of a shared service, ultimately working towards a truly UK-wide approach to data access for research in the public benefit.