Towards Enabling Scalable Federation Solutions: Findings from the PANORAMA Early Adopter Project

As a DARE UK TREvolution Early Adopter project, PANORAMA aimed to address these challenges by assessing the feasibility of using a set of emerging tools to enable a secure, connected and interoperable network of TREs. Specifically, the project worked with Standard Architecture for Trusted Research Environments (SATRE), the 5 Safes Trusted Execution Service (5STES), and Semi-Automated Checking of Research Outputs (SACRO) to assess the usability of these tools to establish a Pan-North NHS Secure Data Environment federation. PANORAMA provides practical evidence that secure, federated research across multiple TREs is achievable, but cannot just be limited to technical tools. PANORAMA demonstrates that technical tools support federation, but trust, governance equivalence, and inter-organisational operational alignment determine whether it succeeds. By identifying both benefits and limitations, PANORAMA supports national efforts to improve federated sensitive data research infrastructure and accelerates high‑quality research that deliver public benefit in a trustworthy and transparent way.