Last year, Cancer Research UK, a long-term client of AIMES, sought to extend our partnership by scaling up their original Trustworthy Research Environment (TRE).

This expansion would involve shortlisted external researchers (from a variety of funding sources) having the opportunity to utilise the TRE infrastructure; facilitating secure access to highly sensitive data which would otherwise be unobtainable for these groups.

To expedite this process and ensure the buildout is as seamless as possible, AIMES have seconded Matt Forfar, to work within the Cancer Intelligence team at CRUK.

Since joining AIMES in September 2020 after attaining a Distinction in his MSc in Business Analytics & Big Data, he began as an Implementation Engineer and Project Manager for one of AIMES’ SaaS partners (primarily NHS workforce deployment).

He has now been appointed to the role of Implementation Manager at CRUK. Since joining the CRUK team in May 2021, Matt has developed the selection criteria and application process for research groups, aided in the management of the project, maintained strong communications between researchers, AIMES and CRUK, and – as a part of the Approvals Board – support the decision making in the selection of research projects to be onboarded to the TRE.

Matt commented on the expansion:

Health data has typically been difficult to analyse due to IG restrictions; but making use of a TRE to create a secure central repository for this data, and the data linkage opportunities it provides, can pave the way for ground-breaking research into all forms of cancer.

AIMES are working in partnership with CRUK, to help fulfil their ambitions of having the UK’s leading TRE for cancer-based research, which is very exciting.

AIMES are a leading provider of Trustworthy Research Environments, and have an extensive list of clients and case studies which substantiate our expertise. To find out more about how we can help you, feel free to contact us.