Published: 5 March 2026

AMRC has published a new briefing, exploring the charity perspective on the new Health Data Research Service (HDRS). It highlights the bold ambition and opportunities that the HDRS offers, while emphasising that, to succeed, the service must ensure the public, patients and healthcare professionals can have confidence that data is being used appropriately.

Read the briefing

The briefing was developed following an AMRC workshop, held to better understand what charities and charity-funded researchers need from HDRS, and to help inform our work in this space. The event featured talks – including from the new HDRS CEO, Melanie Ivarsson OBE, in her first external speaking engagement – as well as breakout discussions and a panel session.

AMRC CEO Nicola Perrin also shared the briefing with parliamentarians during  an APPG for Life Sciences roundtable focused on 'Building a Health Data Research Service to Benefit All’. Discussions at the event explored many of the same key areas highlighted in the document’s six recommendations.

The establishment of the HDRS was announced in April 2025, with the Government and the Wellcome Trust partnering to invest up to £600 million in the new service. It will give approved researchers a single secure route to health data where personally identifiable information has been removed. It aims to simplify access to datasets such as primary care, hospital and mortality data.