Framework in Practice¶
The 3 Nations Readiness Assessment¶
The HDRL Framework was developed for an independent assessment of the potential readiness of health data research services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to participate in the emerging UK Health Data Research Service (HDRS).
The project was commissioned by Research Data Scotland on behalf of the devolved nations and conducted by OPL Advisory between December 2025 and April 2026. Research Data Scotland owns the intellectual property rights in the commissioned project outputs; OPL Advisory originated and developed the framework and delivered the assessment.
How the framework was applied¶
The assessment combined five evidence streams:
- indicator-level readiness assessments using stakeholder interviews and documentary evidence;
- retrospective and prospective research use-case analysis;
- a workshop in each nation;
- a joint 3 Nations synthesis session; and
- external policy and sector intelligence.
Each nation was offered a structured Right of Reply to correct factual inaccuracies and provide additional evidence. Proposed changes were adjudicated against the same maturity descriptors, with cross-nation calibration used to support consistency.
What the application tested¶
The field application tested whether one framework could:
- assess heterogeneous systems without requiring a single governance or institutional model;
- distinguish documented maturity from unverified capability;
- identify where policy, capacity, evidence or infrastructure was the binding constraint;
- combine indicator scoring with real research delivery scenarios; and
- produce actionable roadmaps rather than a pass/fail audit.
It also reinforced that an overall score is not enough: domain patterns, evidence gaps, capacity and use-case dependencies all matter to readiness.
Final Report¶
Research Data Scotland published the Final Report on 14 July 2026. It presents the authorised findings from the 3 Nations Readiness Assessment and the roadmap arising from them.
Read the RDS publication page Download the Final Report (PDF)
Public reporting boundary
The public report is the authoritative source for the assessment findings. This website links to it but does not reproduce the underlying indicator-by-country matrix, detailed evidence records or right-of-reply material.