Study Zones

Last modified: 29 May 2026

Study Zones are dedicated spaces within the TRE for each partner LPS.

Study Zones enable LPS partners to access data from their own LPS linked to NHS England data. In a Study Zone, LPS partners can conduct quality checks, curation and methodological enhancement of their LPS data.

You must not do any applied research in your Study Zone.

If you want to conduct an applied research project, you’ll need to submit an Expression of Interest (EoI). For instructions, see UK LLC Guidebook: How do I apply?

Access to Study Zones
LPS partners can access their Study Zones as soon as:

• the Study Zone has been set up by UK LLC (see below),

• your LPS has deposited at least one File 2, and

• your LPS participants have been linked to e.g. NHS England.

Only the people in your team who are going to be working on the data in the Study Zone within the UK LLC TRE need to have access. Only Office for National Statistics (ONS) Accredited Researchers can access the UK LLC TRE. All members of your team will therefore need to attain accreditation prior to access.

Setting up a Study Zone

Please follow the steps below to set up your Study Zone:

1. Email access@ukllc.ac.uk with the names and email addresses of the LPS team members who will need to access the Study Zone (only include your LPS’s Principal Investigator if they will actually be working on the data). Please specify the team lead and include contact details for the contracts department in your organisation so that we can negotiate the signing of a Data Access Agreement (DAA).

2. When you’ve supplied the information above, the UK LLC Applications Team will complete your project application for you (Study Zones do not need an Expression of Interest).

3. Everyone named on the application will receive an automated email from UK LLC inviting them to set up an account in UK LLC Apply. Setting up an account lets each team member:

   • see all the information about their application,

   • provide information about their organisation’s information security (Step 4 below), and

   • fulfil the project governance requirements (Step 5 below).

   It is mandatory that you set up an account.

4. Once you’ve set up your account, log into UK LLC Apply and complete the section about information security policy and practice at your organisation. You need to specify if your organisation holds either ISO 27001 certification or NHS England Data Security & Protection Toolkit that covers the scope of your LPS team (please include the relevant reference number).
   If your organisation holds neither of these assurances, please write ‘none’ and you will be asked to sign a different type of contract with UK LLC called a System Level Security Policy. See UK LLC Guidebook: complete your project governance for further information.

5. In UK LLC Apply each team member must accept the UK LLC Data User Responsibilities Agreement (DURA) and the project-specific Data Owners’ Terms and Conditions (e.g. NHS England).

6. Once all project governance steps have been fulfilled and we’ve verified your ONS Accredited Researcher status, we will provision data to your Study Zone. You will receive an automated email from UK LLC explaining how to log into the UK LLC TRE and get started. See the UK LLC Guidebook: TRE User Guide for further information.