The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is the joint recipient of a major new Medical Research Council (MRC) grant to advance how sensitive medical imaging data can be used for research.
An award of nearly £400,000 will fund the Federated Infrastructure for digital pathology Reporting and Expert Data Annotation in a Secure Environment (FIREDANSE) project, run in collaboration with The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation and Imperial College. FIREDANSE will form part of the newly announced portfolio of Data and Analytics Research Environments UK (DARE UK) Phase 2 catalysts, funded through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
This award sits within a wider £2.7 million investment across eight pioneering projects, which will run for 12 months and are intended to test bold, early‑stage ideas that could shape the future of UK data research infrastructure. The programme will push the boundaries of technology in the next generation of Trusted Research Environments (TREs) – highly secure digital platforms that allow approved researchers to access sensitive data safely and responsibly.
Linking digital pathology data across Trusts
While today’s secure environments protect privacy and maintain public trust, they can limit the data types, tools and computational power available to researchers. The newly funded projects aim to explore how these restrictions might be safely overcome, opening the door to research questions that are currently difficult, or even impossible, to answer. The outputs will include prototypes, evidence and practical guidance to inform national policy and long‑term infrastructure planning.
FIREDANSE is led by Professor Manuel Salto-Tellez, Professor of Integrative Pathology, and Dr Simon Doran, Senior Staff Scientist in the Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging, both at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). Together with their co-investigators and collaborators, they will demonstrate the feasibility of securely linking biopsy images and associated clinical data across the TREs of two major cancer centres: The Royal Marsden’s BRIDgE TRE and Imperial’s iCARE secure data environment.
By enabling these data connections across institutions, the team plans to show how future researchers could train more powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment. The linked datasets will allow algorithms to learn from a greater variety of patient cases, making them more accurate and clinically useful. Such advances may ultimately help alleviate the severe workforce pressures facing pathology services both in the UK and internationally.
Expert review to address patient concerns about AI
A core element of the FIREDANSE project focuses on responding to patient and public concerns about the reliability of medical AI systems. People want to know that any AI used in healthcare is closely overseen and validated by hospital consultants throughout both development and deployment. They also want reassurance that there is no significant risk of algorithms generating inaccurate or misleading results.
To address this, the team will adapt an existing web‑based app developed at the ICR that allows consultants to view anonymised pathology images and clinical data securely, and to enter expert reviews in a structured and efficient way. The upgraded platform will work seamlessly across both The Royal Marsden and Imperial, enabling multi‑hospital expert validation of AI models. This will support not only algorithm development but also ongoing quality assurance, ensuring that AI tools perform consistently and safely in clinical settings.
Public engagement and governance
Public involvement is central to the project. FIREDANSE will run engagement activities to better understand public priorities and concerns, introduce participants to the language and concepts of AI in healthcare, and facilitate discussions among citizens, clinicians and data scientists. The aim is to help build trust while demystifying the complexities involved in securely protecting sensitive data within institutional boundaries, even as researchers collaborate across sites.
The team will present its engagement materials to information governance professionals at partner organisations. Their approval will be required for the test system to be used more widely, offering an early indication of whether the project’s communication approach meets the needs of both experts and non‑specialists.
Building the future of secure data research
Announcing the funding, Emily Jefferson, Interim Director of DARE UK, said:
“These projects are intentionally exploratory. They give researchers the freedom to test bold ideas that challenge current assumptions about how Trusted Research Environments work. By investing in early‑stage prototypes and strong public engagement, we are building the evidence needed to shape future infrastructure that is secure, flexible and worthy of public trust.”
The findings from FIREDANSE and the other funded projects will be shared widely across the research community. The aim is to guide the future direction of DARE UK and shape national and sector‑wide approaches to securing data research, helping ensure that the UK remains a global leader in the safe, responsible and innovative use of sensitive health data.
Dr Simon Doran, Senior Staff Scientist in the Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging, at The Institute of Cancer Research, London said:
“It’s a huge honour to receive this award, and we are immensely grateful to the MRC for continuing to fund research that has a real-world impact.
“Our project’s name, inspired by the Balinese fire dance, symbolises the careful choreography required to move sensitive data safely between secure environments – a balancing act of jeopardy, precision, coordination and technical mastery. In the same spirit, we aim to demonstrate how cutting‑edge data infrastructure can support better research while protecting the privacy and trust of the patients at its heart.”
Erik Mayer, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the iCARE Secure Data Environment at Imperial College London, said:
“We are very grateful to DARE UK for funding this work that will help us continue to develop a fully interoperable national network of secure data research infrastructures for public and patient benefit.”
Steven Francis, Chief Information Officer at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“Allowing access to data for collaborative research projects, whilst retaining complete control of anonymised patient data, is a major challenge for the world's leading healthcare institutions. We are very grateful to DARE UK for funding this work, as FIREDANSE will create new technology to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of this field whilst reassuring the public that their data is being used responsibly.”
Image credit: Brian Penny from Pixabay