Singapore-UK Health Data Bridge

The project team during a recent visit to TRUST, collaborating to deploy tools that bridge healthcare innovation between Singapore and the UK.

Written by Jonaa Eva from the University of Nottingham, the article showcases how this partnership is transforming cross-border health research capabilities. 

The collaboration, stemming from a Memorandum of Understanding signed in October 2024 between HDR UK and Singapore's National Research Foundation, brings together TRUST alongside key partners including GovTech and A*STAR to tackle major health challenges like cancer and diabetes through federated analytics. 

A key highlight is TRUST testing and validating cutting-edge open-source tools developed by the HDR UK Federated Analytics programme, including Five Safes TES, which enable secure distributed analysis where data remains local while researchers can access aggregated results across borders. This approach maintains the highest privacy and security standards whilst unlocking new possibilities for international health research.

The article emphasises how this Singapore-UK partnership demonstrates the feasibility of global population health studies and establishes a scalable model for international federated research. As Jonaa notes, meaningful progress requires not just technology, but "trust, shared purpose and understanding for people to actively participate and belong." 

This recognition from HDR UK underscores TRUST's growing international profile and our commitment to advancing secure, collaborative health data research on a global scale. 

Read the full article ↗ (opens in new tab) on the HDR UK website.