Setting up to receive enquiries

Registered Users can submit general and feasibility enquiries to your Team (more details on how this takes place can be found here). General enquiries are free text queries, whilst feasibility enquiries provide more information about a particular project and datasets of interest.

Update – April 2025: Ability to redirect Feasibility Enquiries and Data Access Requests to an alternative Data Custodian

Teams can now specify an alternative Data Custodian when uploading metadata to the Gateway. This means feasibility enquiries and Data Access Requests will be diverted to the named alternative Data Custodian, instead of the uploading Team. This provides more flexibility for Teams who may wish to make specific data descriptions findable, but are not in a position to handle detailed enquiries and requests for the data. General enquiries about a Dataset will still be handled by the uploading Team.

The Data Custodian must be an already existing Team on the Gateway. You can search for a Data Custodian using the drop-down menu.

The below table summarises how the enquiry redirects work (example only):

Receiving and responding to enquiries

In both cases, those who are Data Access Request (DAR) Managers, as well as any email address included within the ‘Notifications’ section of the Team Management dashboard, will receive an email notification upon an enquiry submission. The email notification will contain the content of the enquiry and the sender will read reply+<16randomcharacters>@healthdatagateway.org. To reply to this enquiry, simply click ’Reply’ or ‘Reply All’ in your email client.

Your email response will be stored within the Gateway with the original message that was sent by the User.  The Gateway will then automatically relay your response to the User via email. The User can then respond to your message in the exact same manner, facilitating back and forth communication.

This email relay service facilitates communication through email clients without the need to log back into the Gateway, whilst also maintaining the capability for analytics requirements and tracking of correspondence. A future release of the Gateway will provide the functionality to see all the email correspondence from within the Gateway user interface.

Should you wish to amend any of your team’s permissions (including DAR Managers), simply log in, locate your team and head to the Team Management dashboard. Guidance on how to make changes to permissions can be found here.

Data Access Requests

The Gateway also provides an optional, comprehensive and cost-free Data Access Request Management solution for Data Custodians. At a high level, the Gateway’s Data Access Request module supports the following process steps:

Benefits of adopting the Gateway’s Data Access Request Module: 

• A centralised space for managing and processing Data Access Requests for your Team
• An easy-to-use web-based interface and application dashboard
• Ability to tailor a Data Access Request form aligned to the 5 Safes Framework
• Automated notifications and status updates for both Data Custodians and applicants 
• Ability to annotate and share messages with applicants during the review stage

Future features of the module will include:

• Automated reminders to support the application review stage
• Ability to engage with users on draft applications prior to submission
• An optional Word-based application form
• Business intelligence dashboards
• Workflows to support a multi-stage review process
• Integration with the Gateway’s Data Use Register to automatically upload details from approved applications
• Ability to integrate with external systems (APIs and services)

If you are interested in adopting the Gateway’s Data Access Request Module, please reach out to the HDR UK Technology Team by raising a Support Request ticket here.