Welcome to the Southern SDE Partnership

The Southern SDE Partnership is a collaboration between three established NHS Secure Data Environments across the South of England.

Together, we are delivering a more streamlined and accelerated route to NHS data for research – across the whole health and care journey. We are aligned with the direction set by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. Our shared ambition is to make secure access to NHS data simpler, faster, and more consistent for researchers, while maintaining the highest standards of governance, transparency, and public trust.

Each Secure Data Environment (SDE) remains locally led and embedded within its clinical, academic, and community context. By operating as a partnership, we are establishing a regionally connected model that increases scale and coherence, while retaining the clinical insight, local expertise, and connection to local communities that gives NHS data its value in practice.

We are part of the NHS Research SDE Network, the national programme established by NHS England to enable secure access to NHS data for research. The Southern SDE Partnership supports closer convergence within the Network – improving coordination, developing shared approaches and data assets, and enabling research that spans multiple regions.

Simpler access Data at scale

Working together, our SDEs support research that delivers clear public and patient benefit — generating evidence that can improve care, strengthen NHS services and advance medical understanding. By enabling the secure use of NHS data, research can move more quickly from idea to insight and impact.

Across the South of England, our SDEs are already delivering at population scale, underpinned by established NHS data infrastructure, strong governance, and public trust.

By enabling linked analysis across multiple SDEs, the Partnership is enabling research that operates at greater scale and complexity, with the potential to generate more representative and reliable evidence across the full patient health and care data journey.

Our partnership approach allows de-identified data to be analysed at scale, preserving the richness, integrity and linkage potential of local data – while maintaining local accountability and public confidence. Through the NHS Research SDE Network, this regional collaboration connects directly to the wider national research infrastructure and datasets.

This delivers against national objectives to improve access to NHS data for research and to build a more coherent, scalable and trusted research data infrastructure.

Transparent, fair pricing: Clear cost models and early visibility of likely charges, so you can assess feasibility before committing significant time and resource.
Accelerated, predictable access: A clearer route to access NHS data, with support that helps you move from proposal to approval as efficiently as possible.
Depth and linkage at scale: High-quality, linked NHS data across the full health and care journey, supporting robust, representative and pathway-spanning studies.
Cohort discovery and feasibility support: Tools and expert guidance to help you explore datasets, test feasibility and shape deliverable studies from the outset.

Accelerate your research

The Southern SDE Partnership is building a simpler, more consistent experience for researchers accessing NHS data across the South of England.

We are aligning how researchers navigate NHS data for research with expert support – while the individual SDEs continue to operate their own processes and governance.

1. Connect and direct

The Partnership provides a clearer route to access NHS data for researchers.

You can start with any of our partner Secure Data Environments and be routed quickly to the team best placed to help. This gives researchers a clear starting point, confident early direction and rapid connection to the expertise best suited to your research question and data needs.

2. Shape and prepare

Across the Partnership, we apply a shared approach to helping researchers shape and prepare proposals.

This provides consistent early advice on feasibility, dataset options and governance expectations, helping researchers understand what is deliverable and what it will take to proceed, while decisions and formal approvals remain with individual Secure Data Environments.

3. Access and deliver at scale

Once approved, researchers access de-identified NHS data within NHS-controlled analytical environments, supported by expert teams.

Through the Partnership, delivery is extending to larger-scale studies, enabling analysis across multiple Secure Data Environments, unlocking richer cohorts while maintaining clear governance, local accountability and public trust.

Our partner Secure Data Environments

The Southern SDE Partnership is a collaboration between Secure Data Environments with distinct geographies, populations and areas of expertise.

Together, the partnership enables research at scale across the South of England, providing secure access to high-quality linked NHS datasets, transparent pricing and clear routes into data access, alongside expert support for feasibility and cohort discovery. It also supports collaboration on shared areas of clinical focus, with cross-regional work already underway on priority health conditions, including the development of the Connect-D dementia registry.

The South West Secure Data Environment

The South West SDE spans one of England’s largest and most geographically diverse regions, serving around five million people. Our partnership model across our entire system’s footprint is one of our core strengths.

We have expertise in applied and operational research. We can offer longitudinal cohort integration, system-wide primary and secondary care data, and expertise in specific therapeutic areas, including a purpose-built diabetes dataset.

Our platform includes a secure data landing area and configurable workspaces that can support both structured and unstructured data within a fully functional Secure Data Environment.

The Wessex Secure Data Environment

The Wessex Secure Data Environment serves a population of approximately five million people across the South Coast and central southern England, including coastal communities, areas of deprivation and an ageing population.

Wessex has established strengths in research focused on dementia, cancer and pre-hospital and emergency care, supported by close links between NHS clinical services and academic partners.

It has extensive experience delivering real-world studies and clinical trials, providing secure access to linked, de-identified NHS data alongside expert support to help translate research insight into practical improvements in care and outcomes.

The Kent, Medway and Sussex Secure Data Environment

The Kent, Medway and Sussex Secure Data Environment covers a population of 3.8 million with a diverse combination of urban, rural, coastal and deprivation, fast growing elderly population, a range of health inequalities and variation in health outcomes and service use.

The region’s demographics offer exceptional opportunities for research exploring issues that inform local strategy but also to inform future national policy.

It is particularly well suited to research drawing on linked primary, secondary and community care data for longitudinal and pathway-based studies.

Trust, governance and public voice

Public trust enables research to operate at scale.

All Secure Data Environments operate under consistent, high-quality governance arrangements underpinned by the Five Safes Framework. Approved researchers access de-identified data within secure NHS-controlled environments and never see confidential patient information.

Each Secure Data Environment operates with active patient and public involvement embedded in governance, decision-making and oversight, including representation within Data Access Committees that determine which research can proceed. The Partnership addresses national objectives set by NHS England, DHSC and the Health Data Research Service, while maintaining strong local accountability, decision-making and social licence.

Contact us

To discuss your research or explore access to NHS data, please contact the Secure Data Environment best suited to your work:

Kent, Medway, and Sussex Secure Data Environment or email [email protected].

South West Secure Data Environment or email [email protected]

Wessex Secure Data Environment or email [email protected]

Each link will take you to the relevant SDE website with further information on datasets, services, and application processes.