Planned procurement activities for UK Biobank’s Research Analysis Platform and associated infrastructure

Published:

9 December 2025

As announced at yesterday’s annual conference [8 December 2025], set out below are UK Biobank’s plans for future procurement for the Research Analysis Platform and other infrastructure.

UK Biobank is the world’s most advanced source of data for health research, helping the life sciences sector to transform healthcare for people across the UK and worldwide. It is a database of in-depth genetic, health and lifestyle information from half a million UK volunteers. Researchers worldwide can apply to access an unparalleled volume of de-identified and secure data, and are using it to enable medical breakthroughs, from detecting cardiac disease earlier, to developing tests for Alzheimer’s. De-identified UK Biobank data is already accessible, securely and worldwide, for approved researchers on the UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform, which is enabled by DNAnexus and hosted on Amazon Web Services.

As a registered medical research charity, UK Biobank works closely with public organisations and partners to secure funding, with additional grant funding provided by Wellcome and UKRI for data asset development, to support the future development and implementation of UK Biobank’s secure data environment strategy.

UK Biobank is undertaking a series of separate procurement exercises to culminate in the development of a new Research Analysis Platform which should come into operation in 2028.  Over the next two years, exploiting the latest technological developments, UK Biobank will be planning its strategic approach to the requirements of researchers for new services and data sets to be accessed via the new platform. DNAnexus will continue to support the existing platform and Amazon Web Services will host the UK Biobank data until the new platform is operational.    

UK Biobank’s first procurement will be for the development of an Output Checking Service which will further improve the functionality and security of UK Biobank data. This capability will allow researchers to download summary data from the Research Analysis Platform whilst ensuring the ongoing security and confidentiality of the participant-level data. The capability will enable UK Biobank to achieve certification from the Department of Health and the NHS, both to continue to make available linked health record data and to incorporate primary care data into our datasets for the first time.  UK Biobank undertook preliminary market engagement with interested parties concerning the Output Checking Service in September, and envisages launching procurement activities in early 2026.

Following the outcome of the first procurement activities and incorporation of this technology into the current platform, UK Biobank intends to undertake its procurement for the future cloud infrastructure to securely store and handle the growing volumes of UK Biobank data in conjunction with the new Research Analysis Platform.  It is envisaged that this cloud infrastructure procurement will be launched in the second half of 2026 following engagement with potential suppliers to understand how storage capability and compute optimisation can enhance the functionality and security of UK Biobank’s data.

The final stage of these inter-related procurements will be a competition for the development of the new Research Analysis Platform (or Platforms) to take account of new technology advances over the past 5 years. For compatibility reasons, it is necessary for the cloud infrastructure solution to be understood in advance of the planning of the procurement of the new Research Analysis Platform.  It is likely that UK Biobank will undertake preliminary market engagement with suppliers, researchers and users before launching the procurement for the updated Research Analysis Platform in the second half of 2027. 

UK Biobank will be extending its contract with DNAnexus to manage the current Research Analysis Platform from the current expiry in June 2026 until the completion of the above procurement exercises to allow for a smooth transition to the new platform(s) and migration of data.