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UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform

The UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform

The UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform enables researchers working with UK Biobank's large-scale biomedical database and research resource, to access it in the cloud from anywhere in the world. It has been designed to accommodate the vast and increasing scale of the UK Biobank resource.

The Research Analysis Platform (RAP), enabled by DNAnexus technology and powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), exponentially increases the scale and accessibility of the world’s most comprehensive biomedical database for researchers around the world to advance understanding of human disease.

If you already have a RAP account, or wish to set one up click the link below to access the platform.

The UK Biobank RAP

Who can use it?

The UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (RAP) is available to all UK Biobank approved researchers, that are collaborating on an approved in progress project.

How can I access it?

To access the platform you will need to have an existing UK Biobank AMS account with an approved UK Biobank access application ID. 

You can access the RAP user guide from the useful links on this page. The user guide, which includes a video demonstrating key platform functionality, will continue to be updated as will our Frequently Asked Questions.

Costs

The UK Biobank dataset is held  in the platform at no cost to researchers. There are costs associated with compute, data storage in support of analyses in the platform and egress of permitted data; more information can be found in our useful links.

On sign-up to the Platform, you will receive £40 credit (sufficient, for example, to run around 100 hours of analyses, including example GWAS and PRS analyses using genotype data) towards the cost of any compute or data storage used. Once the free credit has been consumed, researchers will need to provide billing details to perform subsequent analyses. 

Supporting accessibility and the UK Biobank Platform Credits Programme

UK Biobank has received commitment from AWS to provide AWS Credits for exclusive use in the Research Analysis Platform (RAP) to early career researchers and those researchers from low and low-middle income countries.  The Researcher Credits can be used to offset the cost of compute analysis and storage in the RAP.  Terms and conditions apply.  Please refer to the dedicated UK Biobank Platform Credits Programme page for further information.

UK Biobank Platform Credits Programme

Join the online community

An online community forum has been established for those using the platform to support the research community and provide advice on how best to use the new platform.

Ask questions, share experiences and request support from the teams at UK Biobank and DNAnexus. It is our intention that the platform evolves and enables broad and diverse health research, so log on and share your knowledge with others performing their analyses in the cloud.

To find out more about this community and to sign up for updates on the RAP, please click below.

Join the online community

The UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform takes the fantastic data generated by the UK Biobank project and removes the few barriers to entry.

By making all of the data available on the cloud through DNAnexus, I can readily scale my computing needs based on my current analysis. The support team recruited by DNAnexus to assist researchers in using this cloud resource has been incredibly responsive. I look forward to using and watching the Research Analysis Platform grow over the coming years.

Eugene Gardner, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge

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