Ethical data intermediary & compliance consultancy
Datum Longevitus
Data saveslives.
Datum's Mission: To create better lives by building effective data sharing solutions. As a socially trusted community engaged movement, we combine compliance-led technology and data protection expertise to support our clients improve and save lives.
Surely the data that could protect a child is already joined up? It is not. A family can be known to the school, the council and the police, and still no one sees the whole picture until it is too late. In Bristol, the Think Family Database changed that, bringing together around 35 public sector datasets so that services can reach families before a crisis rather than after one. That is one city. What about every other child?
When studies about vulnerable children ended, their data was locked away. No one had ever put it somewhere the next researcher could use it. Then James brought the first non-governmental research dataset into the Office for National Statistics. The first. Ever. How many children could have been helped by everything that was lost before? It cannot be the last.
It sounds absurd. A national study, Boxing to End Youth Violence, is finding out whether boxing can keep young people in low-income areas away from violence. It depended on every partner trusting that the young people taking part would be protected. Datum brought them all to consensus. If the answer is yes, it changes how young people are kept safe in every town that needs it. Compliance reduces violence.
Each of these happened because someone got the governance right. Far more often, no one does, and data that could save a life stays exactly where it is. Datum Longevitus is built to change that.
Don’t take our word for it. Take the data’sProtect, share and unlock: from compliance for a single charity to the secure environments that let whole consortia work with data. Most of the data world wants to be a dot: the platform, the technology, the company that holds the data. We would rather be the line that connects the dots.
We design and manage the line using a combination of compliance and the worlds most advanced technologies: Signal pushing; Memory infrastructures; Secure 5 Safes Environments; Federated Research & Learning Environments; Human1; Fractal; Data Sapians; Prolinx; MetaData Blockchains... and good old fashioned AWS, Microsoft and Google compliance.
Data is shared constantly. Every video call, every email, every record that passes between a charity and a local authority travels through infrastructure most people never think about. What makes that sharing trustworthy is governance: knowing where the data is coming from, where it is going, who is using it, why they are using it, and whether they are allowed to. When those questions cannot be answered, trust is lost and the data stays locked away. Answering them properly is what allows us to be put to good use.
A charity that cannot prove it protects people’s data will struggle to win the funding it needs to help them. We work with charities and research organisations by choice, because they use data for public benefit. For them, we act as an outsourced Data Protection Officer: carrying out a gap analysis, then maintaining the policies, registers, privacy notices, DPIAs, data sharing agreements and rights requests that sit underneath every project. On research consortia, we often lead data protection for the whole group, even when we are not the lead partner.
Enquire about DPO supportEvery study that ends with its data locked away is a head start the next one never gets. As a data sharing managed service provider, we sit between the organisations that hold data and the people who need to use it, running the secure research environments, vendors and agreements that allow it to move safely. When a project ends, we keep that data available, and compliant, for the research that comes next. That is where the name comes from.
Enquire about data sharingThe organisations closest to a problem are often the least able to use the data that could solve it. For those that want to do this themselves, we advise on data access, data sharing and AI governance, map the flows, design the compliance architecture, and recommend the privacy-enhancing technology that fits. We also run sessions that help a whole sector, from local authorities to research networks, design how its data should be shared.
Enquire about consultancyData protection law is a data sharing manifesto. It is not a don’t-do. It is a how-to.
A datum is one piece of information. Longevitus comes from longevity. Put them together and you have the whole idea: information that lasts.
Information being passed on is how cells remember and how people learn. It is how one generation hands what it knows to the next, and how life got from single cells to travelling to the stars. When it stops being handed on, progress stops with it.
Research data is no different. Most of it is used once and filed away, and whatever it could have taught the next team goes with it. We want it kept, protected and passed on, so that it goes on helping people long after the original study has ended.
What we learn, and what we leave behind, should outlast us.
Includes organizations James has worked with in previous roles
Datum under James' leadership has brought all partners to consensus for data protection with grace, integrity and efficiency. We recommend Datum as a trusted partner, that we could not do without.Dr Katherine YoungDirector (UK), Centre for Evidence and Implementation
We love working with James. He fronts our data protection work with an enthusiasm and a work ethic we've come to rely on.Rachael FirthChief Operating Officer, TASO
A fifteen-minute consultation with James is the simplest way to find out whether Datum is the right fit for your project. If you are not ready to talk yet, join the mailing list to hear updates on Datum Longevitus, new guidance, case studies and training as they become available.
