ERICA: A new blueprint for secure health data research in the cloud
Health researchers increasingly rely on large, highly detailed datasets—from hospital records to population health databases—to understand disease, evaluate treatments, and improve health systems. But using sensitive data safely remains a major challenge. A new platform developed in Australia offers a novel solution to this problem by providing a blueprint for building secure research environments in the cloud.
In a new article published in the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS), researchers describe the E-Research Institutional Cloud Architecture (ERICA)—a technical framework that allows organisations to rapidly create secure “trusted research environments” where sensitive data can be analysed without leaving protected systems.
Trusted research environments are becoming essential for modern data-driven research. They enable researchers to work with sensitive datasets while ensuring strong privacy and security protections. However, building and operating such environments is technically complex and expensive. ERICA addresses this challenge by providing a reusable software framework that automatically configures secure research environments using public cloud infrastructure.
One of ERICA’s most distinctive features is its “infrastructure-as-code” design. Instead of manually configuring cloud servers and security controls, ERICA uses software to automatically create and manage secure computing environments. This ensures that every ERICA facility—and every research project space within it—is configured consistently, with the same high standards of security and auditing.
ERICA also supports a federated model in which different organisations can operate their own secure research environments using the same underlying framework. This allows institutions—such as universities or government agencies—to maintain complete control of their data while still benefiting from shared technology and expertise.
The system has been operating in Australia since 2018 and has already been adopted by several organisations. Researchers are using ERICA to analyse a wide range of datasets, including routinely collected health data, research cohort studies and detailed clinical data extracted from point-of-care electronic medical record systems.
Another innovative aspect of ERICA is how it integrates technical controls with governance principles. The platform is designed around the internationally recognised Five Safes framework, which ensures that research projects are appropriate, researchers are authorised, data are protected, computing environments are secure, and research results are checked before they leave the system.
Because ERICA is built on commercial cloud infrastructure, it can also support advanced computing tools used in modern research, including large-scale data analysis and artificial intelligence methods. At the same time, strict controls ensure that sensitive information remains protected.
The researchers say the platform provides a practical model for how organisations can safely unlock the value of sensitive data for research.
“ERICA provides a new blueprint for building trusted research environments using modern cloud technology,” said Dr Timothy Churches, Senior Research Fellow at UNSW Sydney Medicine and Health and lead author of the study. “It allows researchers to analyse powerful datasets while ensuring strong privacy protections and transparent governance.”
As data-driven science continues to grow, frameworks like ERICA can help more organisations to safely use sensitive data to generate insights that improve health policy, healthcare delivery, and population wellbeing.
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Dr. Timothy Churches, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, University of New South Wales, Australia