The COVID-19 Data and Connectivity National Core Study will wire together the UK’s fragmented health data systems so researchers can rapidly answer priority questions about the pandemic. During the crisis, scientists showed that linked health records could transform understanding of COVID-19—revealing who was most at risk, how treatments worked, and where the virus spread. But the effort exposed deep problems: data sat in silos, access was slow and uneven, and the systems lacked transparency and long-term sustainability. This study tackles those gaps head-on. If successful, it will create a permanent national infrastructure where approved researchers can securely access linked datasets—hospital records, GP data, test results, vaccination histories—through Trusted Research Environments. That means future outbreaks can be studied in days, not months. It also means the same infrastructure can support non-COVID research, from cancer outcomes to health inequalities. The project is not about generating new scientific discoveries itself; it is about building the plumbing that makes those discoveries possible. Without that plumbing, the next health emergency will hit the same data bottlenecks that slowed the last one.
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The COVID-19 Data and Connectivity National Core Study will build a national health data research capability to support priority COVID-19 research questions. It draws on lessons for health data research which have been learnt from COVID, showing how urgency and focus during the pandemic have enabled data to be used to generate insights that transformed our knowledge of COVID-19. These lessons highlighted significant challenges with data access, fragmentation, the importance of transparency and concerns over inherent inequalities and sustainability across approaches. The COVID-19 Data and Connectivity National Core Study will therefore ensure needed datasets are discoverable and accessible and linkages are established to answer the research questions prioritised by the five National Core Studies. These research questions and the supporting data and connectivity infrastructure will be critical in provisioning for the longer-term response to COVID. Delivery of the COVID-19 Data and Connectivity Study will involve close interaction with data custodians, the public and patients, and providers of UK-wide national Trusted Research Environments (TREs) to ensure the required data is stored safely and securely, made readily available to approved researchers and is associated with compute, analytical and data services that make it easier to address priority research questions in a transparent and trustworthy way.
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