Last week, the Data Trusts Initiative hosted an information session about our new support programme for data trust pilot projects. You can read more about the pilot scheme on our pilot project pages. To supplement the FAQs published alongside the scheme, this post sets out our answers to the questions that came up during the information session. For further information about the scheme, please email: data-trusts@cst.cam.ac.uk

1. What does success look like for this pilot programme?

The Data trusts Initiative wants to understand what the real-world challenges are in launching a data trust, and what interventions can help overcome these.

With this pilot programme, we want to support pilot projects in getting up-and-running. Ideally, the programme would lead to a set of sustainable, successful real-world data trusts that are empowering communities to govern their data. However, we recognise with any innovation there is a risk of failure. Some pilots may fail, but if they do, we would want them to ‘fail’ safely and help us learn. Finding out what doesn’t work will inform the advice we can give to people interested in establishing data trusts in the future.

From both successful and unsuccessful pilots, we would hope to better understand how to run successful projects. By identifying the issues faced when setting up these projects, we hope to understand what interventions can help you overcome these implementation challenges so that the field as a whole can build on these initial pilots.

2. What sort of things do you expect funds to be used for?

This funding is essentially pump-priming. We want to help data trust pioneers get started. We anticipate funding may be used for activities such as salaries, training, events, travel, software development and sourcing external advice. This could be delivered by your pilot directly or through external contracting. We’ll ask for more information about how you’d like to use the funding if your application is selected for shortlisting.

In the medium/longer-term, we would hope that your pilot could secure wider resources to be able to become financially sustainable.

3. Is it possible for an organisation that has already received funding for a small and specific mandate to participate in this expression of interest?

Yes.

4. Will you accept proposals from trans-national partnerships?

Yes. From a practical perspective, there may be more things to work through with such partnerships. For the EOI, you would need to identify who the lead applicant is who would be taking responsibility for managing the funding.

5. Would an existing data trust be eligible to participate?

Yes, depending on how it is set up. We are looking for projects aligned with the core principles of data trusts -bottom-up empowerment, collective action and independent stewardship - you can read more about them here.

You’ll need to explain what the funding is being used for and how it is going to help drive forward the agenda.

6. The time scale for completion of the pilot appears to be the end of 2022. What do we expect to be achieved in that time and how will this be evaluated?

The funding we’re providing is pump-priming. It is a year of start-up support to help ease the process of launching a data trust. We don’t expect that this will be enough for the lifetime of the data trust and would encourage pilot projects to develop routes to be sustainable in the long term.

The exact nature of what will be achieved over that period will depend on the project at hand. As project lead, you’ll know what’s plausible with the amount of funding across this period. In the full application stage, we’ll be asking for more details about your objectives, and how you will measure success. Evaluation is likely to be tailored to your project goals and will be a short report to disseminate learnings from the pilots – we’re keen to capture lessons emerging from the pilots, to help future initiatives.

7. To what extent should applicants consider the readiness questions on the application form to be “eligibility questions”?

The Data Trusts Initiative is interested in working with pilot projects at different stages of readiness. Part of what we’re trying to learn through the EOI process is what type of support potential pilot projects will need so that we can aim to deliver this over the next year.

The Likert questions included in the EOI form enable us to ensure that we’re capable of giving the support where it’s required by assessing the stage of development of the project. We expect there will be a diversity of readiness.

You can download a full list of the EOI Questions here

8. Do you have any advice on the level of ‘preparedness’ that you would expect a project with existing users to demonstrate?

If you have already collected data, you will need a plan on how you will engage with the originators of that data to gain consent and buy-in. You’ll also need to think through how your intentions with regards to data use map onto the idea of ‘bottom-up’ empowerment and the other functions of a data trust. You might want to consider questions such as:

  • How will you be empowering the people or communities to which the data relates?

  • Can you demonstrate that your user base is at least interested, or could be interested, in setting up a data trust, and under what conditions?

  • People will have different aspirations and different attitudes to risk, How will you take into account these differences?

9. Is funding restricted to projects setting up a data trust under UK trust law?

The proposed project should demonstrate the potential to deliver the core functions of a data trust. It should: enable collective action; provide independent stewardship of data on behalf of its beneficiaries; and provide strong institutional safeguards around data use (you can read more about these functions here).

We recognise, however, that not all jurisdictions have access to trust law as a framework and there are alternative ways of achieving these goals. We expect to see a range of different approaches, which build on these local legislative foundations, you can read more about different international approaches here.

If you are based in the UK and already know that you do not want to use trust law, we’d welcome information about your rationale for why – please include this as part of your application

10. If projects were similar (substance/scope) at the EOI stage, would you consider creating partnerships?

The Data Trusts Initiative’s goal is that we’ll be able to create a community of practice. While creating partnerships is not something we have explicitly set out to do with this pilot programme, if this does come up then we would contact both projects independently before we would take any further steps.

11. Is a collective that is currently constituted without a legal entity eligible for funding? ** **

An individual or collective without a legal entity is eligible to apply. However, we expect that there should be a legal element to most proposals; the nature of this will depend on the nature of the proposal.

If your project is already functioning well without a data trust – and achieving its desired aims – you may wish to consider if a data trust will provide specific added value. This could, for example, be by providing a structure for managing permissions associated with data use or creating a framework to demonstrate that your governance is trustworthy.

12. Our organisation has existing data sets and wishes to set up a trust. What type of structure might be suited to our aims?

The choice of structure and data access agreement is shaped by the values and aims of those creating it. To explore whether establishing a data trust is the right route for your project; see a recent Data Trusts Initiative blog post that includes a decision tree to decide which kind of data sharing structure is right for your aims.

Your proposal will need to demonstrate a plausible route to consult the originators of the data (see question 8, above).

13. Are you looking to fund data trusts that have been set up by potential communities of data subjects, or are you interested in a trust set up by data users and want to engage data subjects?

We’re interested in hearing from all. We anticipate applications from a range of organisations that may have different aims around data use.

14. Is this funding scheme primarily targeting trusts working with personal data?

** The distinction between personal and non-personal data is already in flux. We anticipate **that initial pilots would mainly be concerned with data about people or communities. However, we recognise that a range of data types could raise different sensitivities and stewardship challenges. If you are interested in creating a structure for bottom-up empowerment, we are interested to hear your proposal.

15. What is the timeline for the pilot funding call?

The deadline for submitting an expression of interest (EOI) is on Thursday 30 September 2021, 17:00 (BST).

After submitting an expression of interest applicants will be notified by 25 October at which point, shortlisted applicants will be asked to complete a full application form to be submitted by 25 November. Successful projects will be notified in early December 2021 with a view to starting projects in January 2022.

Funds must be used or returned to the Data Trusts Initiative by 31 December 2022.

16. Can you tell us about how selected pilots will be ultimately collaborating with or be advised by the data trusts initiative staff?

In the EOI form, we’re asking projects about their level of ‘readiness’ in different domains. This is to help us develop a targeted support package. From our work so far, we imagine that this will relate to organisational development, legal advice, and technology design, but there may be other areas. In addition to support from the Initiative, we hope to build a community that can provide peer-to-peer support. We anticipate we’re going to have projects that have different capabilities, who can learn from each other.

17. If we are not successful with this funding call, are there still opportunities to get support or be involved in the community?

We will be running regular seminars and meetups in the coming months. We’ll also be encouraging people to connect via our LinkedIn group. If you would like to receive direct updates, please sign up for our mailing list