Health Informatics Centre showcases international leadership at IPDLN 2026

The Health Informatics Centre (HIC) at the University of Dundee was proud to play a leading role at the International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) Conference 2026, held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with colleagues delivering a workshop, oral presentations and posters that highlighted HIC's expertise across Trusted Research Environments, data governance, artificial intelligence and public involvement.

IPDLN is the world's leading conference for population data science, bringing together researchers, policymakers and technical experts from across the globe to explore how linked data can be used safely and responsibly to improve health and wellbeing. The conference provided an invaluable opportunity to share HIC's latest research, strengthen international collaborations and contribute to discussions shaping the future of secure data-enabled research.

Representing HIC were Dr Christian Cole, Dr Alba Crespi-Boixader, Gordon Milligan and Jenny Johnston, who together contributed to eight conference sessions, including one interactive workshop, four oral presentations and three research posters.

Opening the conference with Federated Analysis

The week began with an interactive workshop involving Gordon Milligan and Dr Christian Cole, exploring how federated analysis is moving beyond pilot projects into practical deployment across Trusted Research Environments (TREs) and Secure Data Environments (SDEs).

The workshop brought together researchers, TRE operators, policymakers and public contributors to explore the governance, operational and technical challenges of federated research. Participants worked collaboratively to identify practical solutions and contribute towards a Federation Readiness Checklist to help support future implementations.

Sharing HIC's expertise across the conference programme

Throughout the conference, HIC colleagues presented research spanning several of the Centre's key areas of expertise.

Jenny Johnston presented work on SATRE, demonstrating how Trusted Research Environments can simplify compliance with multiple overlapping governance and security assurance frameworks while strengthening governance and reducing duplication for both operators and data controllers.

Dr Alba Crespi-Boixader introduced the RELEASE-AI framework, providing practical guidance for safely managing artificial intelligence and machine learning projects throughout their lifecycle within Trusted Research Environments. The framework supports innovation while maintaining robust privacy protections and public trust.

On the final day of the conference, a project Gordon Milligan and Dr Christian Cole are involved in,K8TRE and FRIDGE, was presented which covers complementary technologies being developed through the DARE UK TREvolution programme that enable secure, scalable and federated analysis across Trusted Research Environments and high-performance computing infrastructure.

Showcasing collaboration and innovation

HIC also contributed three posters during the conference, highlighting collaborative work across public involvement, national data infrastructure and data harmonisation.

These included TREvolution's work embedding the voices of seldom-heard communities into the development of Trusted Research Environments; the refreshed Scottish Safe Haven Charter, helping strengthen governance and transparency across Scotland's Safe Haven Network; and work enabling Scottish clinical datasets to be queried through the HDR UK Cohort Discovery Service using the OMOP Common Data Model, making it easier for researchers to identify suitable datasets across the UK.

Strengthening international partnerships

Beyond the presentations themselves, the conference provided an excellent opportunity for HIC colleagues to exchange ideas with the international population data science community, learn from innovative projects around the world and develop new collaborations that will help shape the future of trusted research.

HIC's contributions reflected their breadth of expertise in the space—from governance and public engagement to technical infrastructure and artificial intelligence—and demonstrated the impact of collaborative programmes including TREvolution and SATRE in advancing secure, trustworthy and scalable research environments.

We would like to thank the organisers of IPDLN 2026 and everyone who attended our sessions, visited our posters and took the time to discuss ideas throughout the week. We look forward to building on these conversations and continuing to work with partners across the international community to advance the safe and responsible use of linked population data.

The published abstracts from this year’s IPDLN Conference are available to view on IJPDS website.