Involving the public in SATRE
Over the last nine months SATRE - Standardised Architecture for Trusted Research Environments - have run a series of workshops with members of the public. We wanted you to tell us what is important about the use of TREs as well as giving us feedback on the SATRE specification.
(You can read the specification here The SATRE specification — Standard Architecture for Trusted Research Environments 0.0 documentation (satre-specification.readthedocs.io))
As well as running specific sessions we have had two members of the public sit on our project team since the start and they also helped develop the project. They have attended all project meetings and provided input into the specification as well as our videos which have been created to communicate the work of the project.
Impact of the public sessions
What did we include and what did we change based on feedback from members of the public?
Initial Sessions
Our initial two sessions identified what was important for people to trust TREs. From this we heard that cybersecurity, oversight, de-identification of data and transparency were key elements which people cared about. These themes fed into plans for what needs be included in the specification.
· Cybersecurity and Governance are two specific sections within the statement
· Making sure the analysed data removed from the TRE to be used for research does not include identifying features is covered in a section called Output Management (Section 3.3)
· A statement about transparency was included in the specification in Public Involvement and Engagement (Section 4.8)
· A statement about public involvement and oversight of TRE processes was included (Section 4.8)
Follow Up Sessions
In our second set of sessions we looked in detail at elements of the specification and collated feedback. The discussions in those sessions influenced the following changes:
· Upgrading of the Public Involvement and Engagement (Section 4.8) statements from Optional to Mandatory*
- Inclusion of a statement for TREs to publicly report on near misses and incidents
· Detail added to the statements on the level of information TREs should include on their website and in what format
We also used the discussions and the questions asked in the sessions to create a video outlining what SATRE does in an accessible way. The script and style was influenced by feedback in the sessions.
Why is this important?
The SATRE specification is a community driven specification and that community includes the public. Many TREs adopting the specification hold personal data and it is important to involve the public in how that is used.
You can find out more about other elements of the SATRE project by reading our other blog posts: SATRE: Standardised Architecture for Trusted Research Environments — Medium
