Trusted Research Conversations
Episode 2: SATRE – Standard Architecture for Trusted Research Environments
In the second episode of Trusted Research Conversations, Aridhia Senior Product Manager Ross Stiven is joined by two of the people closest to the development of SATRE: Tim Machin from University College London and Dr Christian Cole from the University of Dundee to discuss how the specification came to exist, what it has achieved, and where it needs to go next.
SATRE or the Standardised Architecture for Trusted Research Environments was developed to bring consistency and rigour to how TREs are built, operated, and evaluated. Before SATRE, TRE providers and the institutions procuring them had no common benchmark. Compliance claims were difficult to verify, capability comparisons were unreliable, and the absence of shared standards made procurement and governance considerably harder than it needed to be.
Ross, Tim, and Christian discuss how the project was set up, the decisions made in scoping and structuring the specification, and the practical challenges of building a standard that works across commercial providers, academic institutions, and NHS organisations simultaneously. They also look at the benefits the specification has already delivered for TRE providers scoring their environments, for data custodians evaluating platforms, and for the broader research community seeking assurance that the environments handling sensitive health data meet a consistent bar.
🔗 SATRE