Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, TD, has launched an initiative to support the health research community to develop a data-driven COVID-19 related research response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the Health Research Board (HRB) have collaboratively developed a process to enable researchers to have access to COVID-19 datasets, within a secure COVID-19 Data Research Hub, which is hosted and maintained by the CSO.
For more information on the COVID-19 Data Research Hub, the press release issued by the Department of Health can be read here: Press release
For detailed information on how to access the COVID-19 Data Research Hub, please visit the dedicated website, hosted by the HRB here: Access to COVID-19 Data for Research.
In the absence of explicit consent, a consent declaration is a necessary safeguard required under the Health Research Regulations, for processing COVID-19 data from within the COVID-19 Data Research Hub.
The HRCDC is pleased to be able to contribute constructively to this important initiative by working collaboratively with the Central Statistics Office and Health Research Board to develop a bespoke and streamline ‘COVID19 Data Research Hub’ HRCDC application form to facilitate researchers in applying for a consent declaration from the HRCDC to access the COVID-19 Data Research Hub.
This bespoke application form now details many of the CSO technical and organisational data protections safeguards that are specific to the COVID-19 Research Data Hub – thus removing the requirement for researchers to complete these sections. Notwithstanding this, the HRCDC reserve the right to consider all information set out in the application form in the context of the research study that is seeking a consent declaration.
Researchers who wish to apply for a consent declaration to process data from within COVID-19 Data Research Hub, can access the ‘HRCDC_COVID19 Data Research Hub’ application form and associated guidance notes here: https://hrcdc.ie/apply/