Reflections on Our First Data Anonymisation Workshop

Earlier this June, the Biological Research Data management team (BioRDM) delivered our first-ever workshop on data anonymisation at the Circadian Mental Health Network Conference in Edinburgh — and we’re thrilled with how it went! 

We developed this session in response to growing interest in data sharing across the mental health and circadian research communities. With open science practices becoming more common (and increasingly required by funders), we noticed many researchers were asking: How can I share sensitive data responsibly, without breaching privacy laws like GDPR? This workshop aimed to provide some practical answers.

Held as a pre-conference training for the Circadian Mental Health Network Conference, the session drew a fantastic crowd of attendees — from Early Career Researchers to group leaders, with backgrounds in psychiatry, neuroscience, biology, clinical practice, and more. We were pleased to see such a diverse and motivated group come together to tackle this important topic.

A sneak peak of the workshop

What We Covered

The workshop was led by three members of our team, Livia Scorza, Haya Deeb and Daniel Thedie, and covered:

• The distinction between de-identification and anonymisation

• Common techniques like masking, suppression, and generalisation

• Tools and workflows for implementing anonymisation in research projects

• Re-identification risk assessment

• Trade-offs between the information value of open data and privacy risks

Feedback was important throughout the workshop

Participants appreciated the workshop’s practical focus, especially the opportunity to apply anonymisation techniques to real-world examples. The discussion around balancing the benefits of data sharing while retaining data utility. The diversity of attendees—from different disciplines and career stages—enriched the session with thoughtful questions and shared experiences. This first run of the workshop and the feedback collected from participants also gave us ideas for future improvements: incorporating more interactive elements earlier in the session, allowing more time for the final group exercise, and offering deeper coverage of specific tools—particularly for handling quantitative data—which some participants highlighted as a key interest.

Attendees working on group activities

Looking Ahead

It was a fantastic space to pilot this workshop, and we’re already looking forward to delivering it again — with more time, more exercises, and an even stronger focus on the individual needs of researchers working with sensitive data. In the meantime, you can find our training materials on github for free.

Stay tuned for future events and resources from the Circadian Mental Health Network — and if you would like us to bring this training to your institution or group, feel free to get in touch!

Blog by BioRDM Management Team

Check out our previous blogs for the other amazing work the BioRDM team has been involved in with the Network.