The GUARDS principles act in synergy with the widely understood and accepted "5 safes framework." The safeGUARDS help collate the breadth of thinking and best practice, and communicate this to professionals and the public.
What are the SafeGUARDS and why do we need them?
The SafeGUARDS principles have been developed to act as an overarching governance framework for the population data research community.
For research using data about people to be legal, ethical, and publicly acceptable, there is a need for a research governance framework which is efficient, demonstrably robust, transparent and which balances the need to uphold individual rights and to minimise risks to individuals whilst enabling public good outcomes.
Considerable work has been undertaken in the data governance space by many organisations around the UK to consider how we can balance the needs of research stakeholders. Particularly, how we can provide effective and efficient access to data for public benefit research, whilst ensuring the rights of data subjects are respected.
The Five Safes framework is an excellent existing example of a governance framework which is already helping many data stakeholders consider the issues that effect this balance. The Five Safes has been adopted by many research infrastructures and government departments, both in the UK and overseas.
However, the Five Safes framework does not include all the factors we know to be important, which have been identified by extensive public consultation, realised in reflections on our progress and response to events, and are embedded in considerations such as the ‘Social License’ to operate.
Therefore, we have developed the GUARDS principles to help guide data stewards consider the factors and competing tensions that impact on our use of data. The GUARDS sit at a very high level and ‘knit together’ a wide spectrum of connected principles and requirements. The GUARDS act as an umbrella to help collate and promote this work, to provide a cohesive overview and to highlight areas where further focus, change and collaborative action is required in a spirit of continuous improvement across the community. Much of the content is not new, and indeed that is the point, as the core principles in the GUARDS reflect enduring considerations and fundamental rights.
The principles act in synergy with the widely understood and accepted but more operational ‘Five Safes’ risk management framework, and we believe are best conceptualised and promoted together as the ‘safeGUARDS’ framework. The component parts of the GUARDS interact with wider principles: such as the FAIR principles for maximising the value of research data and the CARE principles for Indigenous Data Governance. GUARDS is explicitly designed to acknowledge and respect these (and wider) principles and frameworks and not overlap with or seek to replace them. A core objective of the safeGUARDS is to help collate and frame the breadth of thinking and best practice which exists, and to provide a means to communicate this both to professional and public stakeholders.
How were the SafeGUARDS developed and who was involved?
The SafeGUARDS were developed by the Pan-UK Governance Steering group in partnership with the HDR UK voices network and HDR UK Public Advisory Board. The GUARDS have been through extensive consultation, with focused stakeholder workshops held with members of the Steering Group, and via a public consultation process which consisted of a survey co- developed with members of the HDR UK Public Advisory Board (PAB) and issued to the HDR UK Voices network.
What are the next steps for the SafeGUARDS?
The SafeGUARDS principles were formally launched at the Pan-UK Data Governance Frontiers Meeting in January 2025. Further consultation on the principles is currently ongoing, including with funders, regulators and data owners. More detailed documentation is being developed and will be published shortly.
For those interested in the SafeGUARDS please email informationgovernance@hdruk.ac.uk
