Gateway Releases

Covering release 2.47.3 to 2.53.0

1. Key Highlights

• Improved search functionality using Typesense, including search result highlighting and ongoing search performance improvements.
• Updated HDR UK schema version to v4.1.0 (link to documentation), helping Data Custodians publish and maintain higher-quality records.
• New validation and monitoring capabilities to identify issues such as broken links and integration failures more quickly.
• Expanded support for organisational, network and associated entity information within metadata records.
• Continued investment in API documentation, platform reliability and operational resilience.

2. Changes for Researchers

New

• Additional context-driven features to support Dataset & BioSample discovery with Typsense-powered search.

Changed

• Typesense search results now include highlighting of matched content, making relevant information easier to identify.
• Ongoing search optimisation work has improved the overall Dataset & BioSample discovery experience.

Deprecated

• None this release.

3. Changes for Data Custodians

New

• Support for capturing and maintaining network-owned and associated organisational information within Dataset & BioSample metadata records.

Changed

• Improvements to Dataset & BioSample onboarding workflows help reduce publishing issues and improve metadata quality.
• Updated HDR UK schema version to v4.1.0 (link to documentation) with addition of two non-required fields; data use ontology codes and patient recontact. Also added British National Formulary (BNF), DCAT and DDI to options for list standardised data models.
• Enhanced Dataset & BioSample metadata monitoring now helps identify broken links and other catalogue quality issues more effectively.
• Updates to Dataset & BioSample metadata ingestion and integration processes support more reliable catalogue maintenance.
• Expanded Data Use Register entry to allow for expanded descriptions and detail for research outputs.

Deprecated

• None this release.

4. Changes for Programmatic Users

New

• Expanded API documentation to support easier integration with Gateway services.

Changed

• Improvements to SDK generation and API consistency support smoother system integrations.
• Enhanced error handling and operational reporting improve reliability when interacting with Gateway APIs.

Deprecated

• None this release.

5. Changes for Open-source Collaborators

New

• None this release.

Changed

• Improvements to build, test and release processes support more reliable and efficient software delivery.
• Platform maintenance included dependency upgrades, operational improvements and resilience enhancements.
• Better job processing, monitoring and alerting help identify and resolve service issues more quickly.

Deprecated

• None this release.

6. Bug Fixes

• Resolved issues affecting dataset onboarding and metadata processing.
• Addressed a range of operational, workflow and service reliability issues across the platform.
• Fixed release automation and deployment workflow issues in supporting services.

7. Feedback & Community

We welcome feedback on any of the changes in this release. If you encounter issues or have suggestions for future improvements, please contact the Gateway support team or raise an issue.

Alternatively, sign-up for our newsletter to stay up to date on news, events and research community surveys.

Thank you for helping us improve the Gateway.

Version 1.8.0 (Web & NLP) / 1.12.0 (API)

1. Key Highlights

• Smarter concept search — concept search for formulating queries now contains synonym lookup, returning more relevant matches.
• Fixes for search accuracy and query group handling.

2. Changes for Researchers

New

• None this release.

Changed

• Concept search has been rebuilt on a dedicated NLP service, with synonym lookup against OMOP tables so searches surface clinically related terms, not just exact matches.
• General performance improvements to data loading, including a new “warm” state to speed up repeat searches.

Deprecated

• None this release.

3. Changes for Data Custodians

New

• Improved alerts, so the HDR UK can be notified in real time of key collection events.
• Automatic notification to HDR UK admins when a collection that had gone offline comes back online.

Changed

• None this release.

Deprecated

• None this release.

4. Changes for Programmatic Users

New

• New Term Directory API endpoint, supporting search, filter, and sort operations over OMOP concepts.

Changed

• The query parser now passes collection IDs and flags through to concept-search requests, improving consistency between the query builder and the underlying NLP service.

Deprecated

• None this release.

5. Changes for Open-Source Collaborators

New

• Introduced a lightweight migration-style system for running one-off commands as part of automated deployments.
• New standalone deployment workflow for the dev environment, triggerable manually or on tag push.

Changed

• General CI/CD reliability improvements, including fixes for intermittent CI failures and removal of duplicate pipeline arguments.
• Deployment pipelines updated so the standalone dev environment can be triggered independently of the main pipeline.
• Cloud database backup now runs automatically ahead of each release.

Deprecated

• None this release.

6. Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where search results sometimes did not correctly match on term name.
• Fixed the flattening of rule groups in the query builder, which improves query performance.
• Fixed the import command used in data-loading workflows.
• composer.lock is now committed to the repository, improving build reproducibility.

7. Feedback & Community

We’d love to hear what you think of this release. If you spot a bug, have a feature request, or want to get involved:

• GitHub: github.com/HDRUK/cohort-discovery-service-web / -api / -nlp
• Reach out to the Cohort Discovery team via the HDR UK Gateway or Cohort Discovery support channels (the yellow ‘Need Support’ button on every page).
• Contributions and issue reports are always welcome.

Thank you for being part of the Cohort Discovery community!

Covering release v2.37.0 – v2.47.2

1. Key highlights

• Added enhanced analytics tracking for Gateway widgets to help us better understand usage patterns and improve the user experience.
• Developing a new Data Custodian dashboard – currently undergoing user testing before release.
• Continued investment in the Gateway search platform to support future improvements to performance, scalability and search relevance.
• Made a number of platform reliability and operational improvements behind the scenes.

2. Changes for Researchers

Changed

• We’ve made improvements to the search service to support future enhancements and improve the scalability of search across the Gateway. Users will not notice any immediate changes, but these updates provide the foundation for future search improvements.

Deprecated

• No researcher-facing features have been deprecated in this release.

3. Changes for Data Custodians

New

• Developing a new Data Custodian dashboard functionality, currently behind a feature flag while we run usability testing prior to release.

Changed

• We’ve continued to improve the underlying services that support automated metadata synchronisation using Predefined Integrations, helping to improve maintainability and reliability.

Deprecated

• No Data Custodian features have been deprecated in this release.

4. Changes for Programmatic Users

Changed

• Improvements have been made to the Gateway search infrastructure, including work to support more flexible search provider management and future search capabilities. API consumers should not need to make any changes as a result of this release.
• Analytics tracking has been extended to support improved monitoring and reporting of widget usage.

Deprecated

• No APIs or integrations have been deprecated in this release.

5. Changes for Open-Source Collaborators

Changed

• Continued development of the search architecture, including work supporting future search technologies and provider integrations.
• Improvements to operational tooling, monitoring and release automation processes to support more reliable delivery of Gateway services.

Deprecated

• No packages, services or public interfaces have been deprecated in this release.

6. Bug fixes

• Fixed issues in the platform’s release and deployment automation processes to improve reliability and reduce operational overhead.
• Addressed a number of minor issues and completed routine maintenance updates across the platform.

7. Feedback & Community

We welcome feedback on any of the changes in this release. If you encounter issues or have suggestions for future improvements, please contact the Gateway support team or raise an issue.

Alternatively, sign-up for our newsletter to stay up to date on news, events and research community surveys.

Thank you for helping us improve the Gateway.

Releases covered: API v1.7.0 to v1.10.0, Web v1.4.0 to v1.6.0, NLP v1.7.0

1. Key Highlights

• Improved performance across cohort search, query processing and collection views.
• Enhanced cohort-building capabilities with support for more complex query logic.
• Improved query status reporting and search experience for researchers.
• Expanded activity logging and audit capabilities.
• Strengthened platform reliability through usability improvements, bug fixes and performance optimisation.
• Increased automated testing and regression testing coverage.

2. Changes for Researchers

New

• Improved collection selection with filtering capabilities, making it easier to find and select relevant datasets.
• Clearer visibility of partial query results while searches are still completing.

Changed

• Improved search performance and responsiveness across cohort discovery workflows.
• Enhanced rule-building experience with improvements to query creation, editing and navigation.
• Better handling of complex natural language searches, including more advanced query logic.
• Support for more sophisticated cohort definitions through nested query structures.

Deprecated

• None this release.

3. Changes for Data Custodians

New

• Expanded activity logging to improve auditability of administrative and platform activities.

Changed

• Improved user administration through enhanced search and sorting capabilities.
• Refinements to collection management and activity reporting to improve operational oversight.

Deprecated

• None this release.

4. Changes for Programmatic Users

Changed

• Backend optimisations improved API responsiveness and query execution performance.
• Enhanced support for complex query structures and logical operators.

Deprecated

• None this release.

5. Changes for Open-source Collaborators

New

• New end-to-end and regression testing capabilities introduced to improve release quality and platform stability.

Changed

• Improvements to internal platform configuration and backend architecture to support maintainability and future development.
• Additional testing and quality assurance tooling introduced across the service.

Deprecated

• None this release.

6. Bug Fixes

• Improved reliability of the rule builder and cohort query construction workflows.
• Corrected issues affecting demographic data mapping.
• Fixed problems with query deletion, empty rule editing and search behaviour.
• Improved accuracy of API documentation.
• Resolved issues affecting user management and activity reporting.
• Enhanced usability across query results, dataset selection and search interfaces.

7. Feedback & Community

We’d love to hear what you think of this release. If you spot a bug, have a feature request, or want to get involved:

• GitHub: github.com/HDRUK/cohort-discovery-service-web / -api / -nlp
• Reach out to the Cohort Discovery team via the HDR UK Gateway or Cohort Discovery support channels (the yellow ‘Need Support’ button on every page).
• Contributions and issue reports are always welcome.

Thank you for being part of the Cohort Discovery community!

Covering releases v2.37.0 to v2.42.0 

1. Key Highlights 

• Developing new Data Custodian dashboard capabilities covering resource activity, Dataset & BioSample views, enquiries and requests. 
• Introduced Dataset Versioning V3 endpoints using JSON Patch deltas, supporting more efficient tracking of dataset metadata changes. 
• Delivered foundational search optimisations to support future improvements to performance and scalability. 
• Improved the reliability of data-management workflows. 

2. Changes for Researchers 

New 

• None this release. 

Changed 

• Updated access confirmation emails to support the revised Cohort Discovery process. 
• Delivered foundational search upgrades to support future improvements to Gateway search performance and scalability. 

Deprecated 

• None this release. 

3. Changes for Data Custodians 

New 

• Started developing a dashboard reporting on Data Custodian resources, dataset views, most-viewed datasets, enquiries and requests. 
• Added logging for Dataset & BioSample download buttons, to enable a better understanding of how Researchers interact with site content. 
• Started developing a Data Access Module business intelligence dashboard. 
• Added support for differentiating resources owned by or associated with Data Custodians and custodian networks, from content uploaded and maintained by other users. 

Changed 

• Improved Data Access Request file handling and added support for importing historic applications. 
• Improved error handling for Data Use Register uploads, giving Custodians clearer and more reliable upload workflows. 
• Improved metadata integration processing by handling edge cases, separating background jobs and making search indexing asynchronous. 

Deprecated 

• None this release. 

4. Changes for Programmatic Users 

New 

• Introduced Dataset Versioning V3 endpoints using JSON Patch deltas, providing more efficient ways to represent and manage changes between Dataset & BioSample versions. 

Changed 

• Added partner context to datasets to support clearer separation of partner-specific resources. 
• Improved search and indexing architecture through foundational optimisation and asynchronous indexing. API consumers should not need to make immediate changes as a result. 
• Improved background processing by moving metadata integration jobs to a separate queue and making indexing calls asynchronous. 

Deprecated 

• None this release. 

5. Changes for Open-source Collaborators 

New 

• None this release. 

Changed 

• Updated reusable and semantic release pipelines to improve the consistency and reliability of automated delivery. 
• Updated application dependencies and supporting configuration as part of routine maintenance. 
• Addressed vulnerabilities identified during a security review, strengthening the security of the Gateway API. 

Deprecated 

• None this release. 

6. Bug Fixes 

• Fixed an issue that prevented content being saved in the Results / Insights section for analysis scripts and software. 
• Improved session management, deployment pipelines and search reindexing to strengthen platform stability. 

7. Feedback & Community 

We welcome feedback on any of the changes in this release. If you encounter issues or have suggestions for future improvements, please contact the Gateway support team or raise an issue. 

Alternatively, sign-up for our newsletter to stay up to date on news, events and research community surveys. 

Thank you for helping us improve the Gateway. 

The first eight weeks of 2026 have continued our focus on responding to user needs and fostering community discussion about the Gateway’s evolution. Here’s what’s new: 
 

February roadmap session 

On 11 February, we held our monthly Gateway roadmap drop-in event. Attendees heard about current platform features, upcoming plans, and had the opportunity to provide real-time feedback to inform future releases. Thank you to everyone who participated – your input is directly shaping the future of the Gateway. Upcoming sessions: 

• Wednesday 8 April 3-4pm 

Sign up here 

API and developer foundations 

With APIv2 now fully in place, we’ve continued making backend refinements and performance improvements to strengthen Gateway’s technical foundations. These updates support improved discoverability and access-enabling features across the platform. 

Improved user satisfaction experience  

Based on feedback, we’ve reduced the frequency of the customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey to a quarterly schedule. We’ve also refined how the survey appears to make it easier to complete, ensuring your feedback continues to shape future improvements without disrupting your experience. 

15 bugs squashed 

We’ve solved 15 issues, including:  

•  Memory performance issues 

• Dataset endpoint fixes in the API 

• Loading performance problems 

• Metadata form hydration behaviour from schemas 

• Metadata distribution improvements. 
   

These fixes improve reliability and overall user experience.  

Widgets adopted by Barts Health 

Gateway widgets are now in use by Barts Health allowing them to display their Gateway assets directly on their website. This improves dataset visibility, avoids duplication of effort, and ensures that researchers always and easily see accurate and up-to-date information.  See it in action here and learn how to set up your own here. 

Cohort Discovery landing page updates 

The Cohort Discovery landing pages and access guidance have been updated to improve clarity and user understanding. We’ve also added clearer guidance on the validation process for accessing the NHS Research SDE Network datasets through the Cohort Discovery Service. 

Accessibility enhancements  

We’ve continued to improve accessibility across the site, including:  

• Improved keyboard‑focus contrast for users navigating the site with a keyboard to clearly see elements 

• More structured and consistent content 

• Better navigation support for screen‑reader users 

These updates support a more inclusive experience for all users.