Data access requests from all academic or commercial researchers (with no exclusive or preferential access) are processed by the UK Biobank’s Research Access Administration Team and approved relatively rapidly provided that they fulfill UK Biobank’s aims of supporting health research in the public interest. Researchers’ institutions then sign a Material Transfer Agreement agreeing not to attempt to identify any participant, and to return any derived data (e.g., new IDPs) to UK Biobank, to be made available to other approved researchers after an agreed “embargo” period (to allow findings to be published or IP protected by the researchers). Thus, while the first set of IDPs described here from internally commissioned research is being made available immediately, the range of IDPs is expected to grow rapidly as additional contributions from the wider user community are added.
