Turner M1, Abdelaziz W1, Bourne A1, Haurat J1, Selamat A1, Carter K2
1BioGrid Australia Ltd, , Australia, 2Aridhia Informatics Ltd, , United Kingdom
Biography:
Maureen Turner, CEO, BioGrid Australia, is a highly respected leader in health data platforms and informatics. With over 15 years’ experience in healthcare research, Ms Turner has been pivotal in advancing data integration and collaborative research efforts across the country. Under her leadership, BioGrid has expanded its platform capabilities with the provision of a fully featured Trusted Research Environment (TRE) with the Aridhia Digital Research Environment (DRE) implemented within a dedicated BioGrid Azure subscription in Australia. This now provides sovereign data residency and sovereign AI capabilities enabling secure and ethical access to multi-modal clinical, imaging and genomic data.
Abstract:
Australian health and biomedical researchers need to analyse sensitive data in environments that are secure, sovereign, and flexible enough for modern computational work. This presentation describes the secure data trusted research environment (TRE) now available to the Australian research community through BioGrid Australia, built on the Aridhia Digital Research Environment (DRE), and how it gives researchers advanced, governed analyses without weakening data protection.
The platform supports multi-modal clinical, imaging and genomic data through common data models, configurable governance, airlocked collaboration workspaces, a searchable metadata catalogue, and built-in analytics for code-free cohort building. We then describe key capabilities including sovereign data residency, sovereign AI including offline large language models and inference inside the environment, bring-your-own containerised applications, and self-service provisioning that reduces dependence on central administration.
Self-service capabilities and bring-your-own-application approaches give researchers more control over their own analyses. The challenge is keeping the platform's certifications (ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and HITRUST) intact as researchers gain that freedom, and we describe how this is managed in practice. For Australian institutions, this combination of certified security, sovereign data residency, self-service and integrated artificial intelligence lowers the barrier to advanced analyses on sensitive health data while keeping it onshore and under local governance.
