# This note

Note to start working on september 2024 agenda, with specific timings and activities.

We need to know what questions to ask the community in our next message to them, how are we asking them to contribute?

# This year

See [this issue](https://github.com/orgs/uk-tre/projects/1/views/1?pane=issue&itemId=57699397) for conversation but we have agreed that this year we want:

- Make the whole of it hybrid
- Volunteers required to make it work
- Provide more focused discussions and involvement in the direction and actions of the community
- We need questions
- We need grant proposal finished (this is what we will ask help with)
- See how we align with The MRC proposal which lists 13 points around a 2035 vision for digital research infrastructure
- Provide better networking opportunities
- We will keep lightning talks as they provide equal opportunities to all presenters and can deliver in equal grounds to online participants
- We are considering adding a posters sessions or stands for the networking to happen after (last year there was no follow up form LT)

## Final agenda

10:15 - 10:30 - Welcome and introductions
10:30 - 11:00 - CMWG updated/announcements: Bid for funding
11:00 - 12:15 - Federation: Accelerating digital science Panel
Keynote 1 - 20mins
Keynote 2 - 20mins
Panel discussion + Q&A - 20mins (+ 15mins overrun option)
12:15 - 12:55 - Accelerating digital science = Focused discussion (breakout format BUT WITH COFFEE at tables) (25m +15m +5 change room): Where the community is going (e.g. MRC proposal for 2035) and how to get there, in breakouts. Each room (2) will summarise discussions from the several groups and an appointed person will ensure the summary is fed back to the wider community and CMWG later during the day wrap up.
13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch & networking
14:00 - 15:00 - Breakout session 2 (45m +15m): Community breakouts: Working groups + suggested topics
15:00 - 15:15 - Quick coffee break and room changeover
15:15 - 16:15 - Lightning talks (9 allowed @ 5mins per+15 mins QA)
16:15 - 16:45 - DARE UK Phase 2 presentation
16:45 - 17:00 - Wrap up

## Draft agenda

10:15 - 10:30 - Welcome and introductions
10:30 - 11:15 - Keynote & CMWG updated/announcements (ensure QA time) (focused on the theme of the day)
11:15 - 11:30 - Break
11:30 - 13:00 - Lightning talks (Maybe split this into WG updates (30m) and lightning talks?)
13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch & networking
14:00 - 17:15 - Focused discussion
- Session 1 (45m +15m): Where the community is going (e.g. MRC proposal for 2035), in breakouts, then get together to summarise
- Session 2 (45m +15m): Community breakouts: Working groups + suggested topics
16:15 - 17:15 : Poster session?
17:15 - 17:30 - Wrap up

Half an hour (?) on skills or it being the questions posed for session 1

Suggestion: potentially do focused discussion (session 1) after keynote, and lightning talks after lunch. So we keep on topic.

### Draft alternative agenda

10:15 - 10:30 - Welcome and introductions
10:30 - 11:00 - CMWG updated/announcements
11:00 - 11:30 - Keynote
11:30 - 11:45 - QA on keynote
11:45 - 12:00 - Break: go back
12:00 - 13:00 - Focused discussion (breakout format) (55m +15m+5 change room): Where the community is going (e.g. MRC proposal for 2035), in breakouts, then get together to summarise
13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch & networking
14:00 - 15:00 - Lightning talks (Maybe split this into WG updates (30m) and lightning talks?)
15:00 - 15:30 - Working groups updates
15:30 - 15:45 - Quick coffee and change room break
16:00 - 17:00 - Breakout session 2 (45m +15m): Community breakouts: Working groups + suggested topics
17:15 - 17:30 - Wrap up

### Draft alternative agenda PEB

10:15 - 10:30 - Welcome and introductions
10:30 - 11:00 - CMWG updated/announcements: Bid for funding
11:00 - 12:15 - Federation: Accelerating digital science Panel
            Keynote 1 - 20mins
            Keynote 2 - 20mins
            Panel discussion + Q&A - 20mins (+ 15mins overrun option)
12:15 - 12:55 - Accerating digital science = Focused discussion (breakout format BUT WITH COFFEE at tables) (25m +15m +5 change room): Where the community is going (e.g. MRC proposal for 2035) and how to get there, in breakouts, then get together to summarise
13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch & networking
14:00 - 15:00 - Lightning talks (12 allowed @ 5mins per)
15:00 - 15:15 - Quick coffee and change room break
15:15 - 16:15 - Working group Breakouts (45m +15m) + suggested topics
16:15 - 16:45 - DARE UK Phase 2 presentation
16:45 - 17:00 - Wrap up, thank you and safe journey home

Draft alternative agenda **MA**

10:00 - 10:15 – Welcome, introductions and housekeeping
10:15 - 10:45 - CMWG updates/announcements
10:45 - 11:05 – Keynote 1
11:05- 11:25 Keynote 2
11:25 - 11:45 – Panel discussion/Q&A on keynote speeches
11:45 - 12:00 - Break: go back
12:00 - 13:00 - Focused discussion (breakout format) (40+15+5 change room): Where the community is going (e.g. MRC proposal for 2035), in breakouts, then get together to summarise
13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch & networking
14:00 – 14:30 DARE UK Presentation
14:30 – 15:30 - Lightning talks (45 mins talks + 15 min Q&A?)
15:30 - 15:45 - Quick coffee break and room changeover
15:45 - 16:45 - Breakout session 2 (45m +15m): Community breakouts: Working groups + suggested topics
16:45 - 17:00 - Wrap up

### Consolidated alternative agenda Final?? - DSP

10:15 - 10:30 - Welcome and introductions
10:30 - 11:00 - CMWG updated/announcements: Bid for funding
11:00 - 12:15 - Federation: Accelerating digital science Panel
Keynote 1 - 20mins
Keynote 2 - 20mins
Panel discussion + Q&A - 20mins (+ 15mins overrun option)
12:15 - 12:55 - Accerating digital science = Focused discussion (breakout format BUT WITH COFFEE at tables) (25m +15m +5 change room): Where the community is going (e.g. MRC proposal for 2035) and how to get there, in breakouts. Each room (2) will summarise discussions from the several groups and an appointed person will ensure the summary is fed back to the wider community and CMWG later during the day wrap up.
13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch & networking
14:00 - 15:00 - Breakout session 2 (45m +15m): Community breakouts: Working groups + suggested topics
15:00 - 15:15 - Quick coffee break and room changeover
15:15 - 16:15 - Lightning talks (9 allowed @ 5mins per+15 mins QA)
16:15 - 16:45 - DARE UK Phase 2 presentation
16:45 - 17:00 - Wrap up

### Keynote speaker
Who?

### Lightning talks and networking

Can we curate and provide an online space to follow up on this? This would provide networking on equal grounds for both online and in person participants, take the event beyond the day. This can be a digital garden, a simple wiki or forum, a repo or board, a collaborative document (I once was in an excel party).
- If in advance we can even put these materials on screen during the day

#### Posters and stands

Big pro on networking, concerns of cost and logistics (do we have the time and resources to do it right?)
- Costs of poster stands or whatever's needed to display posters
- Would be good to have a poster prize if we do it? helps provide an added incentive especially to ECRs/more junior folk.

Decision:
- No posters this time, next time , especially if we get funding for a 2 day event
- More time for lightning talks instead
- Encourage people to share something online that we can link to

## Post-registration questions:

- Are you joining in-person or remotely? (Encourages people who registered ages ago to check they can still make it)
- Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Do you have any dietary requirements?
- Are you able to volunteer to help with AV, running session, in-person, or remotely?
- Clear CTA on remote volunteering
- Would you like to give a lightning talk? If so give a title. (limited time available so won't be time for everyone, but we will prioritise people who need to prsent to ahve their costs covered)
- ~~Would you like to present a poster?~~
- Any accessibility requirements?
- Are there any particular topics you'd like to discuss?
- Are you interested in leading a breakout session on this?
- Optional: what are your goals for the day, this will help us to organise the day?

## Theme for the day

Decide soon, update event page

"How do we make research happen"

"Professionalising TREs in the UK:...
- "...from a discussion space to a network "
- "...from many roles to one career"
- "...from talking shop to setting standards"

### Objectives and discussions we want to happen on the day

- How to go from an "informal" community to a formal network
- How to deal with funding and sustainability of it
- DARE UK phase 2? Could have a space to learn about it, and our alignment
- (comment from Balint here): please could DARE have a speaking slot sometime in the morning, perhaps just before/after the keynote? We will have announced phase 2 by Sept, and it'd be great to communicate our plans to the community. They will hopefully be interested not least because we are going to be putting real money into community-based initiatives!
- Big vision for this community, what we are including on the Skills grant is a reflection of this (Skills, shared resources, standards)
- Are we at a crossroads in the community? How does the day/attendees help us overcome it

By 2nd September we want to present a vision (which should be the one we have already worked on) on which to 1) get feedback and be able to amend it 2) get help in making it happen.
- How to make the community participate? right questions on the day, make people want to create rather than merely giving something to say yes or no to.
- Suggestion on how to: Too deep a conversation from the get go can be off putting, questions that make a deep conversation bubble up is a better dynamic. Give people the time to participate afterwards

## Draft email to be sent Wed 3 July 2024

Subject: UK TRE in-person/hybrid meeting in Newcastle, Monday 2 September 2024

Hi everyone!

Registration is open for the annual UK TRE in-person/hybrid meeting in Newcastle, Monday 2 September 2024: https://lu.ma/icjl9wmb

This all day meeting will review what the UK TRE community has collectively achieved this year, and discuss what we must do to support a long term strategy for secure research in the UK and beyond. This will include the development of people and skills to work with and operate secure infrastructure, the provision of infrastructure, incorporating public views, and effective knowledge sharing.

As in past meetings we'll have breakout rooms for topics suggested by the community, and Lightning Talks will also be back for everyone to present their work to the whole community. Register now (deadline 31 July) to apply for a Lightning talk and suggest your topics.

After the initial [lu.ma registration](https://lu.ma/icjl9wmb) you'll be directed to a Google form to collect additional information. There's also space to indicate food or accessibility requirements, and to tell us about any general goals you have for the day.

This meeting is open to anyone interested, so please share this with your colleagues outside the UK TRE community. The deadline for registering to attend in-person is 31 July 2024 so we can finalise arrangements with the venue, online registration will remain open beyond that.

See you in September!

# Final text for event

Title: UK TRE Community meeting - September 2024
- Suggestion: UK TRE annual conference - September 2024 [make its importance clear, it is disctintive from others]

Subtitle: Accelerating secure digital science through community collaboration
- Format suggestion: make this part of the title (or at least bigger)
- needs to say: we are accelarating (through collaboration) the best science getting done via digital tools

Trusted research environments and datasets are fundamental to digital science, but work is often delayed due to the time and effort required to set up a secure project, get access to the right approved data, and to sign legal agreements.

There is enormous value locked up because of this: new research ideas are blocked by the hurdles of getting started and accessing data, and typical fixed term project funding means significant research time is lost.

We want to discuss what is stopping us from fixing these three critical issues: getting data federated to approved projects; instant provisioning of infrastructure for collaborative projects; and streamlining legal discussions with standard accepted T&Cs and operating models.

The UK TRE community has already setup several working groups to look at some of these problems, and we plan to to submit a UKRI Digital Research Technical Professional Skills NetworkPlus grant to create a long-term footing for the UK TRE community, and to support the community in joining or creating working groups to solve the critical issues which are hampering secure digital research.

Agenda: here we put the agenda and timings for the day
Keynote: a brief description of the keynot, rn it can be a placeholder and say we are working to define it
Community updates: here text on WG from 'This links to our WG in the following way:'
Breakout sessions: define what we expect and have prepared for both AND LT, clarify it is open but with purpose

## Pete's text

Making digital science happen sooner - how we make that happen

People know how TREs and dataset are fundamental to digital science, but time to set up a secure project and get access to the right approved data and also set up the legal agreements take a lot of effort and time, slowing the start of the analysis. There is enormous value locked up because of this: new research ideas are blocked by the hurdles of starting and access; the overhead of lost time restricting research time (for a fixed project duration).

We want to discuss what is stopping us from fixing these three critical issues: getting data federated to approved projects; instant provisioning of infrastructure for collaborative projects; and streamlining legal discussions with standard accepted T&Cs and operating models.

This links to our WG in the following way:

Funding and Sustainability: The operating model needs to be affordable and sustainable, showing how a digital science platform can operate financially is an essential. Helping the federation of datasets to projects and provisioning the project infrastructure.

SATRE: An accreditation and specification for generic SDE/TRE facilities is needed. How these adapt to cover the different parts of a digital science platform remains a central need, helping the federation of datasets to projects

SDE/TRE terminology & the TRE Glossary: Developing the community language for the digital science platform will make sure the parts join up and projects can be provisioned

Extending Control: How the technology works with and enables information governance. So helping the federation of datasets to projects.

Cybersecurity risk: A base capability for any digital science platform, and how these risks change with new approaches and tools (e.g. AI/ML) is an ever emerging factor.

Citizen Agency: Digital science is all about collaboration with people. Failure will result unless it is ensured that they remain connected to the platform and support science that is consent based as well as population.

Link to the Funding and skills part:

Skill sets for governing across a federates research process; skills for technology configuration and operation across a digital science platform; skills for users to understand the zones and their separation; skills in the designers and toolers for how their tools need to respect the zone differences.

Building this set of WGs and building the network of people involved.

Training the people in the wider digital science platform and their roles and activities within it.

Alternatives for title strap-line:
* Making digital science happen - reducing the time-to-research
* Reducing the time-to-research – our role in making that happen
* Taking our UK TRE towards being the UK digital science platform

# Keynote ideas (need to be confirmed soon)

DARE announcements for phase 2, 30 min slot

Someone from the Crick: bridging the gap between NHS SDEs communities and research community. Federation talk
- Clear candidate and lined up

Practicalities of federating TREs - Simon Thompson (Swansea, SAIL Databank, UK SeRP)
- we agree with this as the more directly in line with day goals
- Who can contact them?

Integrated data service from ONS - Tom Scott? Dom Hale? (ONS IDS)
- How will this also connect with other Safe Researcher intiatives? why 2 registries?
- Are we taking different approaches worht debating?
- This along maybe biobank restrcting data access to their TRE sounds like a good topic for next event.

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Internal (private) planning doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AuAms9n92cIpV4vqhBXk7jamIy939Dswhn43hCb-KmU/edit

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# Last year agenda and resources

Slide deck https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZkHNbVpALBdu9OZXsJRxcwhY5-lPVvmQCTAVXj8thkU/edit#slide=id.g27a562eabdb_0_5

10:15 - 10:30 - Welcome and introductions
10:30 - 11:15 - Keynote: ‘Can convening a technology ecosystem help TREs to work together?’, Emily Jefferson (CTO, HDR UK)
11:15 - 11:30 - Break
11:30 - 13:00 - Lightning talks
13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch
14:00 - 17:15 - Parallel breakout discussions (with breaks)
17:15 - 17:30 - Wrap up