This page provides an overview of how a Data Custodian can make their Datasets discoverable on the Gateway. The Gateway does not hold any raw data; instead, it stores summary information used to describe each of the Datasets that the Data Custodian holds. This is commonly known as metadata.

Metadata contains information such as: where the Dataset has come from, a description of the Dataset, the time-period, and the geographical areas the Dataset covers. This metadata allows a researcher to understand whether a Dataset will be of use to them without having to see the data itself. The more metadata that is provided about each Dataset and the more accurate it is, the easier it is for a researcher to decide whether it is helpful for their work. This metadata also allows a researcher to check if they are eligible for access before making a request from the Data Custodian; this helps to reduce the number of invalid requests that Data Custodians must handle.

For a Data Custodian to make their Datasets discoverable on the Gateway, they must upload metadata about their Datasets onto the Gateway – a process called onboarding.

To begin onboarding metadata to the Gateway, Data custodians will need to:

1. Create an account on the Gateway.
2. Be added to a Team for your organisation.

If your organisation does not have a Team on the Gateway, please contact the HDR UK Technology team via our Support Centre  or Gateway Enquiries.

Once the HDR UK Technology team has set up a Team for your organisation, you can manage individual permissions to enable other users to upload or manage metadata on behalf of the Team. For information on how to administer users in a Team and assign permissions, see the Team Management page. To be added to a Team in the Gateway, you must first create a Gateway account.

Creating an Account on the Gateway

To sign up for an account on the Gateway, first select the ‘Sign in’ option in the top-right corner of the Gateway homepage.

Here, you can Sign in or create an account on the Gateway with four different Sign in options: (1) Sign in with Google; (2) Sign in with LinkedIn; (3) Sign in with institution and (4) Sign in with Azure.

Next, you will need to provide some additional details to create your profile: your name, email address, and sector. There are also several optional fields that you can choose to include in your profile such as your organisation, a bio, a link to a research or social media profile, and an ORCID identifier.

Ways to onboard metadata

There are four different ways to onboard metadata in the Gateway:

1. Manually input metadata into the Gateway via an easy-to-use online form.
2. Upload a .json file of metadata via the Gateway.
3. Create authentication keys and link to the Gateway via a Private App.
4. Create a Gateway App to automate metadata transfer to the Gateway by configuring specific API endpoints. 

To manually input metadata via the online form (1) or .json upload (2), click here.

Guidance content for creating Private (3) and Gateway (4) Apps to share metadata with the Gateway (alongside Technical and API documentation) can be found below:

• Technical and API documentation
• Health Data Research Gateway Schema V3.0.0