Guide for Principal Investigators: What you need to know to get started

This article outlines the key responsibilities of a UK Biobank Principal Investigator (PI), including researcher registration, data governance, annual report submission, and setting up billing wallets for UKB-RAP usage.

Responsibilities of a UK Biobank Principal Investigator

As a registered UK Biobank PI you have several key responsibilities, including:

Ensuring all researchers and collaborators who need access to participant level UK Biobank data are fully registered
Leading on data governance and security for your research team
Ensuring continued access to project workspaces through timely completion of annual reports
Enabling researchers to use the UKB-RAP through setting up wallets for billing (with appropriate spending limits if needed)

Your research team

All users of UK Biobank data need to be approved by UK Biobank to access the UKB-RAP, and as PI you need to make sure that all researchers who will access the data are listed on your application
If your research team changes (including changes to collaborators) you need to update this information in AMS
Researchers can obtain UK Biobank approval once registration is approved and mandatory training courses are completed. If you and your researchers need additional support, visit the community portal for links to more training

Ensuring good data governance

All approved researchers of UK Biobank will have completed the mandatory training courses, which includes a module about data governance from the Medical Research Council (MRC) “Research, GDPR and Confidentiality”. This course explains the Data governance principles and practices that everyone using data in their research needs to know. For proof of course completion all researchers need to download the certificate generated upon passing the course and upload this to their AMS account
As PI, you have a responsibility to ensure your team works to these practices and does not misuse UK Biobank data; including awareness of researcher generated outputs and ensuring approved researchers do not share access details with others
For further information on your responsibilities as a PI, review our template MTA

Annual report submission

You (and your lead collaborators) must submit an annual report of your project progress
When your report is needed, a submission template will be made available to you, and you will have 3 months to report back on progress made, new developments, and any revised plans for the upcoming year
Failure to submit an annual report on time will result in you and your research team temporarily losing access to the data on the UKB-RAP
For guidance and tips on submitting annual reports, read the article "Submitting an annual report"

Enabling UKB-RAP usage through wallets and billing

Before you can start work on the UKB-RAP you will need to set up your billing procedures and project wallet
You do not pay for accessing the data on the UKB-RAP, but you need to pay for compute time, storage of researcher outputs and for the download of researcher generated outputs
Billing is supported by DNAnexus (who manage the platform on behalf of UK Biobank) and more details on the process, including detailed explanations of each step, can be found within the DNAnexus help documentation
Finally, if you need additional support on any of the steps above, or to answer any other questions that may arise, check our our help articles on Billing and Credits

Community portal FAQs and additional training

Be part of the wider UK Biobank community by joining the forum – share your questions, ideas and experiences here with other researchers
Contact UK Biobank for support with a registration, access or questions about the data
Email DNA Nexus for any queries relating to billing set up