The Secondary Data Analysis Projects are designed to bring together researchers, knowledge users and data controllers to develop research projects that answer policy and/or practice-relevant questions through the use of secondary data. The proposed research should be explicitly linked to the documented evidence needs of the knowledge user organisation.
This is a rolling call and as such there will be two separate opening and closing dates and associated peer review cycles.
1. Cycle 1
Opens for applications from 03 February 2025 at 13:00 until 30 May 2025 at 13:00
2. Cycle 2
Opens for applications from 01 September 2025 at 13:00 until 09 January 2026 at 13:00
Changes Since The Last Round:
The SDAP scheme was extensively reviewed in 2024. This included analysis of grant management processes, monitoring and engagement with both the health research community and current SDAP grant holders. The following changes have been implemented to strengthen and enhance the scheme:
1. Grant Budget
The budget per grant will increase by €100,000 from €250,000 to €350,000. The enhanced budget is to assist securing appropriate, required personnel with health data expertise and/or enable training and upskilling of personnel on data management, linkage and support skills to conduct SDAP. The enhanced budget empowers capacity building across the system enhancing data expertise skillsets.
2. Project Duration
The standard SDAP duration will increase by 12 months meaning the minimum duration will be 36 months or up to 42 months if developing a tool. The increased timeline is in recognition of potential challenges regarding data curation, hiring of suitable personnel and dissemination activities to conduct the project. This should alleviate and reduce the requirement for no cost extensions.
Note: Applicants are still encouraged to consider allocating appropriate time and budget supports for Data Curation/Preparation, Data Management, Salaries and Training/Specialist skills.
3. Scope & Datasets
The SDAP scheme is designed to have direct relevance to policy and/or practice in the Irish health and social care system and is not appropriate for proposals focused solely on audits or service improvements hence these are excluded from the scope of SDAP 2025.
The datasets used must either be existing Irish or international datasets. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) generally seek to answer one specific question under certain conditions, with limited scope outside the specific trial parameters. Data from RCTs are not appropriate when seeking to make more generalised policy and practice decisions and should ideally be avoided as dataset sources without specific justification.
4. Public/Patient Involvement (PPI)
The HRB encourages PPI to be actively considered for inclusion in all proposals where appropriate. In the event of PPI being excluded in a proposed project appropriate justification will be needed and this will be considered by the Review Panel.
Details of this scheme
The awards will support proposals typically between 36-42 months duration where the findings from the research will have direct relevance to policy and/or practice in the Irish health and social care system. This should involve close collaboration of researchers with relevant stakeholders including decision makers and data custodians/controllers. The proposed research should be explicitly linked to the documented evidence needs of the knowledge user organisation.
As some data sets are not currently in an accessible format, proposals are allowed that include some aspect of development or improvement by the data provider/s in order to make datasets more accessible for research purposes in accordance with international best practice and ensures that the privacy, confidentiality and data protection rights of data subjects is preserved in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Health Research Regulations of the 2018 Data Protection Act (e.g., through the creation of a published data dictionary, use of encryption on de-identification techniques). In these cases, the duration of the award may be up to 42 months, with up to 12 months dedicated to the development of such protocols and tools.
Who can apply?
Applications should be made on behalf of a team made up of researchers, knowledge users and data controllers.
- The Lead Applicant and Co-Applicant(s) must include a researcher and a knowledge user. This is a requirement of the scheme
- Data controllers from data provider organisations should ideally be included as Co-Applicants or Collaborators
- At a minimum, the data controller of the organisation providing access to the dataset/s must agree to provide access to the dataset
- PPI Contributors should be included as part of the team where appropriate
In some instances, a researcher or a knowledge user may also be the data controller/processor. The applicant team should designate a Lead Applicant from the research team.
The applicant team must demonstrate clearly that the appropriate and relevant partners are involved in order to achieve the objectives set out in the research proposal and in a manner that aligns well with the sections included in the application on relevance, knowledge translation plan and impact. This round has added an additional objective: to enhance capacity for further research of this nature in Ireland through upskilling, training and education of team members where possible.
How to apply
This call has two cycles each with specific opening and closing dates. Applications can be submitted to either cycle up to the relevant closing date. There are two distinct opportunities for peer review – see ‘Key dates’ section of the guidance notes. This enables researchers and knowledge users to develop collaborations and to submit their application at the time that best suits them.
All applications must be made using the HRB Grant Electronic Management System (GEMS) (https://grants.hrb.ie), and this system will close automatically at the deadline.
The application must have been reviewed and approved by the signatory approver at the research office (or equivalent) in the host institution before it is submitted to the HRB. Therefore, applicants should ensure that they give the signatory approver sufficient time before the scheme closing date to review the application and approve it on GEMS. Please note that many host institutions specify internal deadlines for this procedure.
Apply for this award
Contact us
SDAP 2025 Seminar
The SDAP 2025 Seminar occurred on Wednesday 26 March 2025 at the HRB Offices. The Seminar provided opportunities for:
- Researchers, data holders/processors & knowledge users to network
- Share the experience & learnings of previous SDAP Grant Holders
- Highlight potential datasets available for use in SDAPs
- Advise on the review of the HRB Policy on Management & Sharing of Research Data
- Update on the current SDAP call.
Session 1: SDAP Experience
The first session focused on the 2025 SDAP Scheme and three previous SDAP Grant Holders’ experiences. It commenced with attendees being welcomed to the HRB by Mr.Gavin Lawler, Programme Manager in the Research & Innovation Infrastructures Unit. He provided an overview of the 2025 SDAP Scheme, the HRB’s growing investment and key changes since previous rounds.
The session then moved into the experience of three previous SDAP grant holders who highlighted a diverse range of projects and the challenges and impact they’ve had:
- Bernadine Brady from the University of Galway presented her SDAP work on “Informing Youth Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Promotion through Secondary Analysis of the Planet Youth datasets – Inform-YSP”.
- Austin Stack from the University of Limerick shared his SDAP on “Disparities in Health Outcomes of Chronic Kidney Disease between men and women in the Irish health system”
- John Carey from the University of Galway presented his work on “Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry Health Informatics Prediction Management Application Process Projects”
Session 2:Data Sets
Session 2 commenced with an update on the HRB’s review of Data Management Plans and HRB policy on Management and Sharing of Research Data by Mr.Sudipta Saha, Project Officer in the HRB. Dr. Irene Castellano, HRB Project Officer then presented the HRB Open Research platform, which promotes open-access publishing.
The session then moved into presentations from key bodies and agencies that hold datasets which could be utilised in SDAPs:
- Siobhan Scarlett presented on the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) giving an overview of the immense data available, including exciting news of a hot desk option for data access
- Anthony Macken from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shared an update on the CSO Health Research Data Centre highlighting the different datasets available and how to access them via the CSO
- Conor Foley from the National Care Experience Programme in the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) presented on the data they have available and highlighted their utilisation in existing SDAPs.
- Sarah Craig from the HRB National Health Information System shared an overview of their data and how researchers can access datasets, key updates & requirements.
The seminar emphasised the importance of robust data management processes and policies to enable extremely valuable, data-driven research which has significant impact on policy and practice, ultimately improving healthcare outcomes.
A detailed seminar summary, all speakers’ slides and their contact details are now available in the yellow box on the right hand side of this web-page.
The HRB would like to thank all the speakers for their efforts, time and excellent presentations and also those that attended for making the seminar an engaging event.