Modernizing the Regional Research Data Engine: A Zero-Trust Operating Model to Close the "Data-When-Needed" & DevEx Gaps in the South West Secure Data Environment (SWSDE)

Regional Secure Data Environments (SDEs) across the UK National Health Service (NHS) were established to transition health analytics from open data dissemination to governed, in-situ access under the Five Safes framework. However, regional environments- such as the South West Secure Data Environment (SWSDE)- face severe operational friction driven by an upfront scoping bottleneck and developer experience (DevEx) barriers. Researchers routinely assume SDEs operate as pre-curated "data shops," whereas clinical repositories operate on an extraction-on-demand pull model from administrative and acute electronic patient record systems. Consequently, unstructured proposals trigger six to nine months of iterative scoping, bespoke Data Sharing Agreement negotiations, and brittle dependencies within locked-down Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDIs), concluded by prolonged manual air-lock output inspections. This paper proposes an operational and technical blueprint to replace this manual, sequential path with a four-stage fast-track pipeline: (1) self-service pre-flight feasibility using public metadata catalogs and synthetic sandboxes; (2) machine-readable cohort specification via a standardized intake template (Form SDE-01); (3) foundation "Ready-Packs" covering 80% of routine clinical data under regional umbrella agreements; and (4) ephemeral, zero-trust Kubernetes execution pods paired with automated Statistical Disclosure Control (Auto-SDC) egress gates. Evaluating an interdisciplinary case study- the socioeconomic impact of GLP-1 receptor agonists- this operational model demonstrates a reduction in project turnaround from 26 weeks to under four weeks while maintaining strict Caldicott governance and data minimization.