The Health Data Research Service (HDRS) is a UK national initiative, announced by the UK Government in partnership with the Wellcome Trust in April 2025, to build a single, secure route through which approved researchers can access and link health and care data. It responds directly to a well-documented problem for anyone who works in research data management for health research: the same anonymised data may already sit inside the NHS system, but a researcher can still spend months navigating separate approval processes, separate technical environments, and separate data-sharing agreements before they can actually use it.
This guide explains what the HDRS is, where it came from, what it is expected to provide, how it is governed and funded, and how it differs from Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) — a related but distinct organisation that research administrators frequently confuse it with.
Where the HDRS came from: the Sudlow Review
The HDRS is the central recommendation of the Sudlow Review, an independent review of the UK’s health data research landscape published in November 2024 and chaired by Professor Cathie Sudlow. Health Data Research UK provided secretariat support to the review. The review’s core finding — echoed by HDR UK leadership at the time of the HDRS announcement — was that the underlying data infrastructure and governance processes across the UK remain slow and fragmented, delaying or preventing safe, secure research for months or years at a time, even where the data itself already exists and the research use is legitimate.
The UK Government formally announced the HDRS on 7 April 2025, backed by up to £600 million in combined funding from the Government and Wellcome, and the initiative was subsequently written into the government’s 10 Year Health Plan.
What the HDRS is intended to provide
Rather than being a single database, the HDRS is being built as a coordinating access layer — “a single, secure gateway to health and care data,” in NHS England’s framing — sitting across data that continues to be held in its existing locations. Based on NHS England’s own description of the service, it is expected to offer:
- Linked health records — integrated primary care, hospital, prescribing, and mortality data at national scale, rather than requiring a researcher to separately request and link each source.
- Research-ready datasets — data from consented study participants and established UK cohort studies, made available in a form that doesn’t require researchers to rebuild derived variables from scratch each time.
- Advanced diagnostics access — diagnostic imaging, laboratory results, and genomic data.
- Clinical trial integration — faster-to-set-up trial platforms that can draw on the same underlying infrastructure.
- Simplified, standardised access — a single entry point with consistent approval processes and secure research environments, replacing the current pattern of separately negotiating access, security review, and data-sharing terms with each individual data controller.
- Cross-sector data linking — the ability to link health data with environmental and social data where a research question requires it.
NHS England’s own worked example is instructive for research administrators scoping a project: a researcher studying recovery after a heart attack currently may need to separately negotiate access to primary care records, hospital episode data, and prescribing data, each under its own approval and security regime, before any linked analysis can begin. The HDRS is designed to collapse that into one standardised process built on models the review pointed to as already working at scale in the UK — notably the SAIL Databank in Wales and Research Data Scotland.
Governance and funding
The HDRS is being established as a new, independent organisation, with recruitment for its CEO and Board Chair launched around the time of the announcement. Oversight during setup is being coordinated jointly across NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Office for Life Sciences. Wellcome is the initial charity co-funder alongside Government funding, and the intended governance model includes independent oversight with regular public reporting on how data is actually used — a direct response to the public-trust concerns that have historically slowed similar UK health-data initiatives (most notably the abandoned care.data programme a decade earlier).
Timeline
At the time of the April 2025 announcement, the first HDRS services were expected to launch by the end of 2026, with further capabilities rolling out progressively after that. Research administrators planning multi-year data access strategies should treat this as a phased rollout rather than a single go-live date, and should check current HDRS or NHS England guidance for the latest status before relying on a specific capability being available.
HDRS vs. HDR UK: two different organisations
The HDRS is frequently conflated with Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), but they are distinct bodies with a genuine relationship rather than being the same thing under two names:
- HDR UK is the UK’s existing national institute for health data science — an independent non-profit backed by ten funders, bringing together 22 research institutes across six regional sites, with a mission to accelerate trustworthy use of health data for research. HDR UK has operated since 2018.
- The HDRS is the new national data-access service recommended by the Sudlow Review and announced in April 2025 — a piece of shared national infrastructure, not a research institute. HDR UK supported the Sudlow Review through secretariat work, but the HDRS is being set up as its own independent organisation with its own governance, not as an HDR UK programme.
For a research administrator, the practical distinction matters: HDR UK is a body you might partner with, apply to, or cite as a funder-adjacent research institute; the HDRS is intended to be infrastructure you (or your institution’s researchers) will eventually apply to use for data access, in something closer to the way researchers currently apply for access through a trusted research environment.
Why this matters for research data management
For institutions managing health-related research data, the HDRS is worth tracking now, even before services launch, because it is likely to change several things administrators are used to handling case-by-case:
- Data access agreements. A standardised national approval process could reduce, though is unlikely to eliminate, the need to separately negotiate a data sharing agreement or data use agreement with each individual NHS data controller for a given linked dataset.
- De-identification and governance expectations. Any national access service handling identifiable and de-identified health data at this scale will set expectations for how de-identification is documented and audited, alongside existing frameworks like the HIPAA Privacy Rule that apply in a US context.
- Data management plans. Researchers writing a data management plan for UK health-linked research should watch for HDRS access routes becoming a citable, standardised pathway, rather than a bespoke description of institution-specific negotiations.
- Comparable UK research infrastructure. The HDRS sits alongside other UK research-data infrastructure research administrators already work with, such as UKRI’s Gateway to Research for funding data and Researchfish for outcomes reporting — distinct systems, but part of the same broader push toward standardised, less fragmented UK research data infrastructure.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Health Data Research Service live yet?
Not fully. As announced in April 2025, first services were targeted for end of 2026, with capabilities rolling out progressively after that. Confirm current status against NHS England or HDRS’s own published guidance before relying on a specific capability for a live project.
Who funds the HDRS?
The UK Government and the Wellcome Trust, with up to £600 million committed between them at announcement. Wellcome is described as the initial charity co-funder; oversight during setup spans NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Office for Life Sciences.
Is the HDRS the same organisation as HDR UK?
No. HDR UK is an existing national institute for health data science that has operated since 2018 and supported the Sudlow Review’s secretariat work. The HDRS is a new, separate, independent organisation set up specifically to run the national data-access service the review recommended.
What problem is the HDRS meant to solve?
Fragmentation: researchers currently often need separate approvals, separate secure environments, and separate data-sharing terms to access and link different UK health data sources for a single study, a process that can take months. The HDRS is designed to replace that with one standardised entry point.
This page reflects the HDRS as announced in April 2025 and described in HDR UK’s and NHS England’s own published materials as of mid-2026. Because the service is still being stood up, verify current operational status directly with HDRS or NHS England before relying on specific access details for an active project.
