The Synthetic hEalthcare dAta goveRnanCe Hub (SEARCH) is a multi-disciplinary initiative focused on creating synthetic healthcare data and facilitating secure data sharing across the biomedical ecosystem.

SEARCH will address critical challenges in healthcare data access by creating a platform that enables secure, privacy-preserving searching, sharing and analysis of multimodal healthcare data. Co-ordinated by Trinity College Dublin, – via the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI), based at St James’s Hospital – this initiative brings together a consortium of 26 cross-sectoral partners across Europe, including TIC Salut Social Foundation, synthetic data experts, healthcare providers, and solution developers, to unlock new opportunities in data-driven healthcare innovation. Funded under the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU), SEARCH boasts an initial budget of over €15.2 million.

SEARCH aims to accelerate healthcare innovation by generating FAIRified synthetic data for use in AI/ML models, enabling large-scale data collaborations while preserving privacy and compliance with regulatory standards.

SEARCH will deliver reliable methodologies for synthetic data generation (SDG) that meet the highest standards of accuracy and applicability, significantly increasing the availability of interoperable datasets. These datasets will be used to develop AI-based tools that support diagnostics, personalised treatment, and predictive health outcomes, improving patient care while reducing privacy risks.

Combining data clean rooms and federated learning allows multiple institutions to collaborate, drawing insights from decentralised data sources, while ensuring that patient data remains securely stored at its source. SEARCH’s innovative synthetic data generation techniques will not only democratise access to healthcare data but will also create a foundation for new diagnostic and therapeutic tools powered by AI/ML.

This project is supported by the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) under grant agreement No. 101172997. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and COCIR, EFPIA (including Vaccines Europe), EuropaBio and MedTech Europe.