About, Citation and Reuse¶
Framework identity¶
| Full name | Health Data Readiness Level (HDRL) Assessment Framework |
| Current version | 1.0.1 |
| Current release date | 29 July 2026 |
| Original applied version | 1.0 — January 2026 |
| Validation status | Evidence-informed and formatively applied; further independent validation is required |
| Originated and developed by | OPL Advisory Ltd |
| Original application | 3 Nations Readiness Assessment for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland |
| Commissioner | Research Data Scotland, on behalf of the devolved nations |
| Intellectual property rights owner | Research Data Scotland |
The website is a navigable presentation of the framework used in the 3 Nations Readiness Assessment, together with the approved v1.0.1 clarification release. Research Data Scotland owns the intellectual property rights in the commissioned project outputs. The framework methodology is made openly available under CC BY 4.0 in fulfilment of the project's open-access aim, with OPL Advisory credited as its originator and developer. The eight-domain structure, 64 indicators, classifications and five maturity levels remain those used in HDRL Framework v1.0.
Version 1.0.1 scope
The paper reports the original applied HDRL v1.0. The website presents v1.0.1, a clarification release that changes programme-status language only; it makes no changes to the method, indicators, evidence or assessment results. Version 1.0.1 clarifies that Baseline Core, Capability Core, readiness profiles and Foundational Indicators describe HDRL's internal assessment logic. They do not create official HDRS requirements, participation gates or accreditation decisions.
Change log¶
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0.1 | 29 July 2026 | Clarified programme status and participation language in the source and website. No method, indicator, evidence or assessment-result changes. |
| 1.0 | January 2026 | Original framework version used in the Three Nations Readiness Assessment. |
Suggested citation¶
OPL Advisory Ltd. Health Data Readiness Level (HDRL) Assessment Framework. Version 1.0.1. 29 July 2026. Commissioned by and intellectual property rights owned by Research Data Scotland. https://hdrlframework.org/.
When citing an assessment, also identify the system or service assessed, the assessment date, scope, evidence standard and assessor.
When reusing the framework, attribute Research Data Scotland as commissioner and intellectual property rights owner and OPL Advisory Ltd as originator and developer.
Academic paper¶
Seymour D, Halliday R, Smart J, Burns F. Development and formative application of the Health Data Readiness Level framework for federated health-data services. medRxiv. 2026.07.23.26358713. Posted 27 July 2026. doi:10.64898/2026.07.23.26358713.
Preprint status
This is a version 1 preprint and has not been certified by peer review. It reports formative application of HDRL and supports practical usability; content validity, inter-rater reliability, responsiveness and predictive validity remain to be established.
Published assessment¶
Seymour D. Health Data Research Service: Three Nations Readiness Assessment—Final Report. Version 1.0. OPL Advisory; July 2026. Published by Research Data Scotland, 14 July 2026.
Review the 3 Nations assessment overview for the authoritative PDF, accessible HTML and Markdown versions. The RDS publication page remains the external publication record.
The RDS PDF is the authoritative version of the Final Report. The accessible HTML and Markdown transcriptions reproduce only its published content and clearly labelled accessibility or navigational additions. The framework website does not reproduce the underlying detailed country assessment records.
Licence¶
The HDRL Framework methodology and the public framework materials on this website are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).
You may share and adapt the material, including for international use, provided appropriate credit is given, a link to the licence is supplied and changes are indicated. The licence does not imply endorsement of an adapted framework, assessment or score by OPL Advisory, Research Data Scotland, the assessed nations or the UK Health Data Research Service (HDRS).
Framework and assessment results¶
The open licence applies to the framework methodology: its domains, indicator structure, maturity model and assessment approach, together with the public explanatory material on this website. It does not publish or license the underlying detailed assessment records, non-public evidence or unpublished country- or indicator-level results.
Research Data Scotland and the respective nations retain control over those assessment materials and decisions about their release. Findings about individual nations should be taken only from the authorised Final Report.
Responsible reuse¶
To preserve comparability and avoid misleading claims:
- identify any changes to indicator wording, classifications, thresholds or aggregation;
- do not describe an adapted instrument as HDRL v1.0 or v1.0.1 without clearly recording the adaptation;
- retain the distinction between framework assessment and official accreditation or participation decisions;
- document the evidence and assessment date behind every score;
- obtain permission from Research Data Scotland and, where relevant, the assessed nation before publishing non-public evidence, detailed assessment records or results outside the authorised Final Report; and
- avoid implying that a maturity level guarantees a research outcome or delivery time.
Source and corrections¶
The complete versioned source of record, machine-readable catalogue, JSON Schema and release-wide checksums are available from Framework Files and Data. The website source and version history remain available in the public GitHub repository.
A concise machine-readable guide to the site's public resources is available at /llms.txt.
For a question, critique, correction or implementation insight, please use the public feedback form. Responses are reviewed before suitable substantive points are summarised in the public GitHub issue tracker; contact details are not published.
Changes to the framework itself should be versioned explicitly so that the version used for an assessment and later public releases remain traceable.
Version discipline
Readiness changes over time. A future framework version or reassessment should not silently overwrite the structure, evidence or interpretation of a previous assessment.
Website analytics and privacy¶
This website uses Plausible Analytics to understand aggregate use and improve the framework's dissemination and content. Plausible does not use cookies or persistent identifiers. The information reported includes pages visited, referral sources, broad country-level location, device and browser categories, and selected actions such as outbound-link clicks, file downloads and form submissions.
Analytics are administered by OPL Advisory Ltd for this website. They are not used to profile individual visitors, support advertising or combine browsing activity with information from other sources. See Plausible's data policy for further details.