What is Airlock and how Secure Data Export Works in Trusted Research Environments?
1. What is Airlock?
It is the mechanism by which authorised personnel review, approve, or reject data leaving secure research environments.
In biomedical research, these environments, known as Trusted Research Environments (TREs), hold sensitive health data such as genomic, clinical, or demographic information. Airlock acts as a secure gateway, ensuring that only approved, non-sensitive and non-individual-level results data can be exported out of the Trusted Research Environment.
It’s not just a “compliance step”. A good airlock system enforces governance, provides accountability, and ensures every data export is traceable and transparent. In simple terms, it keeps sensitive information inside a Trusted Research Environment where it belongs and lets only safe, approved data outputs out.
2. Why is Airlock Required for Biomedical Data Export Approvals in Trusted Research Environments?
Biomedical data is among the most sensitive information in existence – it can include genomic profiles, clinical records, or other personal identifiable details. Because of this sensitivity, Trusted Research Environments must comply with strict frameworks such as 5 Safes Framework, GDPR, HIPAA, FedRamp, among many other global and institutional ethics standards and compliance frameworks.
When researchers perform analyses over the data and generate results or analysis outputs with a Trusted Research Environment, those outputs must be carefully reviewed to ensure that no personal, identifiable, or restricted information leaves the environment. That’s the role of Airlock:
- It protects patients’ privacy by validating exports before they leave secure systems.
- It ensures compliance by recording every decision and maintaining an auditable trail.
- It builds trust by enabling transparency for data custodians, regulators, and researchers alike.
Without a well-designed airlock, even a single data export can compromise compliance and put sensitive data at risk, rendering a Trusted Research Environment not “trusted” or safe.
3. The Different Types of Airlock
Depending on the organisation’s governance maturity and technical setup, there are 4 types of airlock models, each balancing security and scalability differently.
| Model | Process Description | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual | Requests submitted by users, reviewed and approved or declined by an Airlock Manager | Highest security. | Lowest scalability due to full reliance on Airlock Manager manual review. |
| Semi-Automated | Automation rules auto-approve verified workflows or use rule-based and AI checks to flag sensitive data. | High security and scalability. | Requires a more complex setup. |
| Fully Automated | Uses rule-based or AI checks to automatically approve safe exports. | Highest scalability. | Lower security if rules are not sufficiently strict. |
| Federated | Coordinates export requests across multiple research sites, combining results while enforcing site-level approval policies. | Enables large-scale collaboration with local control. | Only 1 Airlock system and configuration can be used as it requires consistent configuration across federated sites. |
These models can coexist within one research ecosystem or even within a single Trusted Research Environment, evolving as institutions scale or adopt more automation.
4. The Best Airlock Solution Available: Introducing Lifebit’s AI-Automated Airlock
Lifebit’s AI-Automated Airlock stands out for its adaptability, scalability, and compliance intelligence. Designed to be an integral part of a truly Trusted Research Environment and to meet the needs of governments, biopharma, and research institutions, it offers a unified governance framework that supports every airlock type — from manual to fully automated and federated models.
“Traditional results data export controls haven’t evolved for the number of user scale and sensitivity of modern biomedical research. With the Lifebit AI-Automated Airlock, we’re introducing a completely new model — one where AI takes care of compliance automatically, so researchers can focus on discovery and authorities on increasing and enriching datasets. This is the first system in the industry that brings intelligence, trust, and transparency to every results data export.”
— Maria Dunford, CEO of Lifebit, commented in the corresponding press release.
Key Capabilities
✅ AI-Powered Export Checks: Automatically scan, classify, and validate exports using pre-configured AI workflows.
✅ Configurable Governance: Admins define flexible export policies, auto-approval rules, and approval workflows tailored to organisational requirements.
✅ Real-Time Feedback: Researchers receive instant notifications on approval or rejection reasons, improving transparency and reducing delays.
✅ Full Auditability: Every request is logged, traceable, and compliant with internal and regulatory requirements.
Why It’s Unique
🧑💻 Manual Review Excellence: For Trusted Research Environments requiring human oversight, Lifebit provides an advanced, intuitive interface with in-line file previews, advanced search, and metadata tracking.
⚙️ Semi and Fully Automated Checks: Built-in automation can trust verified workflows, apply policy-based conditions, and use AI to detect sensitive content, optimising security and speed of reviewing data exports.
🌐 Federated Capability: The only production-grade federated airlock in the market. It enables secure, multi-site research where each organisation retains data control but can still collaborate seamlessly on joint analyses.
Outcome
Lifebit’s Airlock doesn’t just enforce compliance — it empowers collaboration.
It transforms complex, manual oversight into a transparent, AI-governed process, ensuring that only safe and approved data leaves secure environments.
It is what truly makes a Trusted Research Environment “trusted.” Without it, a research environment cannot genuinely be called trusted.
In a world where biomedical data fuels breakthroughs, Airlock is what keeps biomedical data innovation ethical, compliant, and secure – and Lifebit’s AI-Automated Airlock is leading that transformation.