About RADE

The Remote Access Data Enclave (RADE) was set up to give online but controlled access to restricted-use data held by DataFirst. The data is either more sensitive or more granular than the public access data we share on our open data site

Public access data has reduced detail to protect respondent confidentiality. However, this can limit the data’s research utility. The aim of the RADE is to maximise data resources by giving bona fide researchers safe access to sensitive data not otherwise available to the academic community.

Access to data in the RADE is free and available to researchers affiliated to universities or other research institutions. Applications are assessed on whether the applicant is a bona fide researcher and whether their proposed research can be undertaken using the RADE data. Nothing can be removed from the RADE environment and researchers must apply to DataFirst for release of their research output from the RADE. We send researchers their final research output after we have undertaken statistical disclosure control on the output.

How our Remote Access Data Enclave keeps data safe.

Researchers are now able to work on restricted access datasets hosted by DataFirst from their home institutions, under certain conditions. The conditions comply with South African data privacy legislation (the POPI Act ) and the POPIA industry code of conduct for public universities. These conditions are based on the 5 Safes data protection framework of the UK Data Service. Researchers are expected to comply with the rules related to this framework.

The 5 Safes Framework for the DataFirst Remote Access Data Enclave
The 5 Safes Framework for our Remote Access Data Enclave

 

Researchers can find information on the data available in the RADE via the Remote Access Data Enclave Collections page on our data site.  Under this Collection researchers can read the metadata record for each RADE dataset and download relevant data documentation.

RADE applications can be sent to our Support Site. 

Researchers with projects approved by DataFirst can use their secure logins provided by DataFirst to access the RADE environment from their home institutions.