Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA)

What Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) does

LIDA is a multidisciplinary academic research institute embedded within the University of Leeds, established in 2014 with major investments from UK Research Councils. It positions itself as the University of Leeds' centralised hub for data science, connecting 300+ researchers and 400+ academics across 58+ schools and institutes through seven thematic communities: Health, Food, AI, Visualization, Immersive Technologies, Data Science Infrastructures, and the newer Science of Data Science programme. Two-thirds of its projects are interdisciplinary, and the institute supports more than 90 research centres, programmes and projects.

Its core technology asset is LASER (Leeds Analysis Secure Environment for Research), a cloud-based Trusted Research Environment (TRE) that holds both ISO27001 and NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) accreditations, making it the University of Leeds' only computing platform qualified to handle sensitive NHS and commercial data at scale. LASER includes an air-gapped package-management service that allows researchers to develop AI and ML code while maintaining security isolation, and is supported end-to-end by an in-house Data Analytics Team providing data management, analytics, research software engineering, and information governance services.

LIDA's commercial offerings sit on top of LASER and include cost-recovery TRE access (average project under £1,400/year, 70% of projects under £100/month), CPD-accredited training courses (from £250/learner/day), short-term MSc (~£14,750) and Data Scientist (~£35,000+VAT) project engagements, multi-year PhD collaborations (~£75k), and award-winning programmes such as the Data Scientist Development Programme and the new MSc/BSc Data Science degrees delivered partly via Coursera. Customers span NHS Digital, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, four major UK supermarket chains (ASDA, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco), Department for Transport, Leeds City Council, Roche, Meta, NVIDIA, Microsoft and KPMG. LIDA is funded primarily through the University of Leeds rather than external equity — research grant activity is substantial (£120m of external awards across 155 projects in the REF2029 period from 43 funders), but these grants flow through the University rather than as standalone LIDA revenue, and direct operating revenue is not publicly disclosed.

Name

Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA)

Legal name

Leeds Institute for Data Analytics

Website

https://lida.leeds.ac.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

LIDA is the University of Leeds' multidisciplinary data science institute, operating the ISO27001/NHS DSPT-accredited LASER Trusted Research Environment to enable secure data research for academic, NHS, government, and commercial partners across health, food, transport, and society.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Research Data Analytics

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Advanced Analytics & Data Science Services (BPAEAHAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cloud Compliance, Audit & Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM/GRC) (HDABAHAI), Data Security & Privacy for Cloud (DLP, DSPM, Tokenization) (HDABAHAK), Information Security, Privacy & IT Governance (CISSP CPE, Privacy CE) (EDAAALAL), Information Technology & Cybersecurity Certification Prep (CompTIA, Cisco, Microsoft, AWS, ISC2/ISACA) (EDANAIAF)

Keywords

• Data analytics research
• Trusted research environment
• Data science education
• Health data science
• AI research institute

Headquarters

HQ city

Leeds

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Research Grants and Awards: LIDA's grant portfolio comprises 155 projects supported by £120 million of external awards from 43 funders in the REF2029 period. Research spans more than 58 schools and institutes with two-thirds being interdisciplinary.
2. Trusted Research Environment (LASER) Services: Cost-recovery model for LASER platform access. On average, a project on LASER costs less than £1,400 a year. 70% cost less than £100/month, 45% cost less than £50/month. Includes University Azure access fees and support from Data Analytics Team.
3. Consultancy and Training: CPD accredited courses, custom-made training courses, and data science masterclasses. One day course for 10 people from £250 per learner; two day course from £450 per learner.
4. Data Insights Projects: Short-term data insights projects with MSc students (3 months, ~£14,750), Data Scientist projects (6 months, £35,000+VAT), and PhD collaborations (3-4 years, ~£75k).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

LIDA operates LASER (Leeds Analysis Secure Environment for Research), a cloud-based Trusted Research Environment that provides secure storage, processing and analysis of sensitive and confidential research data with ISO27001 and NHS DSPT accreditation. The institute supports interdisciplinary data science research across health, food, societies, environment, AI, visualisation, immersive technologies and data science infrastructures, and delivers education through master's and PhD programmes, the award-winning Data Scientist Development Programme, and CPD training courses. Revenue is generated via research grants, LASER platform cost-recovery fees, and fee-based consultancy and training services.

Product overview

Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) is an academic research institute at the University of Leeds offering a portfolio of products and services centered on its cloud-based LASER Trusted Research Environment as the core platform. LASER provides secure data storage, processing and analysis for sensitive research data with ISO27001 and NHS DSPT accreditation. Supporting the core platform are the in-house Data Analytics Team providing end-to-end technical support, research software engineering, and information governance services. LIDA also offers education and training products including the MSc Data Science (Statistics) and BSc Data Science degree programmes, the award-winning Data Scientist Development Programme (DSDP) for early career data scientists, and LIDA Open Data Science for Schools (LODSS) for widening participation. Research is organized through thematic communities including Health, Food, AI, Visualization, Immersive Technologies, Data Science Infrastructures, and the Science of Data Science Programme. The £6m Healthy and Sustainable Places Data Service (HASP) is a notable sub-brand providing smart data access for place-based research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• LASER: A cloud-based Trusted Research Environment (TRE) providing secure environment for researchers to store, handle, process and analyse sensitive and confidential data. DSPT and ISO27001 accredited.

Products and services

• LASER (Trusted Research Environment) Cloud-based Trusted Research Environment providing secure storage, handling, processing and analysis of sensitive and confidential research data. ISO27001 and NHS DSPT accredited, supporting AI and machine learning research with end-to-end support from the Data Analytics Team.
• MSc Data Science (Statistics) Fully online master's programme in data science with statistics, delivered in partnership with Coursera, School of Mathematics and Digital Education Service at the University of Leeds.
• BSc Data Science Undergraduate bachelor's programme in data science launched as part of new data-science related programmes.
• Data Scientist Development Programme (DSDP) Award-winning 12-month programme developing early career data scientists, working on real-world data problems for external organisations in 6-month project placements.
• LIDA Open Data Science for Schools (LODSS) Widening participation initiative inspiring young people from socio-economically disadvantaged areas to engage in digital skills and access digital careers.
• Healthy and Sustainable Places Data Service (HASP) £6m national data service dedicated to helping researchers use smart data to understand health and sustainability of places, part of Smart Data Research UK with partners including Compass IOT, Mobito, West Midlands Combined Authority, Nesta, Which?, Food Foundation.
• Data Analytics Team Support Services In-house technical team providing end-to-end support including data management, data analytics, research software engineering, and information governance for LASER users and research projects.
• Research Training Courses (CPD) Short CPD-accredited training courses in data science topics including data visualisation, process mining, and data quality methods. Custom-made courses available for organisational needs.
• CDT: AI for Medical Diagnosis and Care Centre for Doctoral Training providing PhD training in AI for medical diagnosis and care, training research leaders to transform medical diagnosis through AI application.
• CDT: Data Analytics and Society Centre for Doctoral Training providing PhD training in data analytics and society with international institutional visits and conference presentations.
• LASER Small Project Bursary Funding provided to a selection of small projects using LASER for sensitive data research. Available to any researcher running qualifying small projects.

Quantifiable outcome

• £120 million in external research funding across 155 projects in REF2029 period
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability13 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Yorkshire Policing-Academic Centre of Excellence (TYP-ACE)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2025New research centre jointly hosted by Universities of Leeds and York, launched October 2025 as part of national network of nine Policing Academic Centres of Excellence (P-ACEs) created by NPCC and UKRI.
• Horizon Europe XR4HUMAN ProgrammecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2025International collaboration concluded with release of first XR Code of Conduct in Brussels September 2025. Leeds contributed expertise in responsible innovation and human-centred design.
• Healthy and Sustainable Places (HASP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Part of Smart Data Research UK, £6m data service dedicated to helping researchers use smart data to understand health and sustainability of places. Partners include Compass IOT, Mobito, West Midlands Combined Authority, Nesta, Which?, Food Foundation.
• Alan Turing InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018University of Leeds became a partner of the Turing in 2018 and continues as one of 65 members of the new Turing University Network (TUN). LIDA leads and nurtures this relationship with several Leeds academics in leading roles including Fellowships, leading Turing Interest Groups and heading up Programmes.
• N8 Research PartnershipcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLIDA works with N8 Research Partnership to bring together data scientists, academics, policymakers, and people with lived experiences to address challenges including childhood inequities.
• Health Innovation LeedscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership advancing health innovation across the Leeds ecosystem, including important visits from Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
• RochecoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerCommercialisation partner for the Leeds Virtual Microscope, a pioneering digital pathology platform now used by clinicians worldwide for cancer diagnosis.
• KPMGminorGTM or Marketing PartnerNew sponsorship for research projects via the Data Scientist Development Programme (DSDP).
• CHEDDAR (Communications Hub for Empowering Distributed clouD computing Applications and Research)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLIDA is a partner in CHEDDAR, a major UK research initiative led by Imperial College London focused on shaping future of communications and distributed computing systems. One of three national Future Telecoms Research Hubs.
• Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partner through LIDA Health Community, working on data-driven health evaluation and research.
• West Yorkshire Integrated Care BoardcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerClose working partnership resulting from systems engineering development funding from NIHR led by Professor Alison McKay and Professor Philip Conaghan.
• ASDA, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, TescocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupermarket retailer partnerships for food systems research including supermarket basket-level transaction data analysis. LIDA working with multiple retailers and published work with four different retailers.
• Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on Priority Places for Food Index and food policy research. IGD co-funded research and hosted industry webinars.
• University of YorkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on NIHR PHIRST REACH (data-driven health evaluation), TYP-ACE policing research, and various health data science projects.
• Meta (Facebook)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch collaboration with Meta aiming to democratise billion-scale deep learning model training so data scientists can train large-scale models with limited GPU resources. Funded by Meta.
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS TrustcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerClinical collaboration on cancer data research and digital pathology through CfIT and Leeds Cancer Research Centre partnerships.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Regional players

• N8 Research Partnership: A partnership of eight research-intensive universities in the North of England, including the University of Leeds. Coordinates data science and interdisciplinary research activity across member institutions, overlapping with LIDA's research community and training functions.

Direct peers

• Alan Turing Institute: The UK's national institute for data science and AI, with a similar university-network model (65 members). Like LIDA, it conducts interdisciplinary data science research and runs training programmes; the University of Leeds (via LIDA) is a member, making them closely affiliated peers.
• Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK): A partnership providing safe, ethical access to de-identified administrative data from government departments for research. Similar mission to LIDA's TRE work, especially for public-sector datasets, and shares the same funder ecosystem (UKRI).
• Health Data Research UK (HDR UK): The UK's national institute for health data science, operating federated research infrastructure across the UK. Comparable to LIDA's LASER-based health research work, with both organisations serving sensitive NHS and population-health data to academic and clinical researchers.
• Genomics England: A government-owned company running a secure research environment for whole-genome sequence data on NHS patients. Comparable to LASER as a TRE serving UK clinical/research data, with similar ISO-accredited, researcher-facing secure analysis infrastructure.
• The Alan Turing Institute (Turing AI Fellowship) data science training ecosystem: Already listed (Alan Turing Institute), but specifically the Turing's training, fellowship and interest-group activity directly mirrors LIDA's DSDP, CDT, and Academic Fellowship programmes, making the Turing the most directly comparable peer for LIDA's education and training portfolio.
• DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK): A UKRI-funded programme developing a federated network of Trusted Research Environments for sensitive data research. Directly comparable to LASER in providing secure analysis infrastructure, and represents both a partner and a potential competitive alternative for sensitive-data research projects.

Broad incumbents

• Digital Catapult: A UK government-backed technology innovation centre accelerating advanced digital adoption. While not a TRE, it overlaps with LIDA's AI/immersive-tech research communities and runs programmes (e.g. around data trust, AI ethics) that intersect with LIDA's Science of Data Science agenda.
• UK Biobank: A large-scale biomedical database and research resource providing approved researchers access to deep health data on 500,000+ UK participants. Overlaps with LIDA's health research and LASER-style secure access missions, but at much greater scale and with a national rather than university remit.

Emerging players

• OpenSAFELY: An open-source secure analytics platform for NHS patient data, developed by the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Provides an alternative TRE approach to LASER for handling GP and hospital records, making it a directly comparable but federated-analysis-focused peer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/lida_uk
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@LeedsDataAnalytics
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/leeds-institute-for-data-analytics-lida
• Facebookfacebook.com/universityofleeds
• Instagraminstagram.com/universityofleeds

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA)