Researcher access, grant submissions & costs

Researchers who wish to access the data in the NHDH will need to ensure their research project falls under the approved uses for the NHDH.

Researchers will also need to complete a project proposal form, which will be reviewed and approved by the NHDH data custodian and an AIHW Ethics Committee delegate before being provided to the NHDH Advisory Committee for consideration and approval.

Before you complete your project proposal form, please confirm that:

  1. Your project purpose is in line with the AIHW Ethics Committee approved themes of research (epidemiological and statistical research, service use and medication dispensing and patient journeys, identifying groups or cohorts of interest or monitoring, evaluation, and data quality improvement)
  2. someone in your team has proficiency or the ability to gain proficiency in at least one of the statistical analytical languages available in the secure access environment (for example, R, Python, Stata, SAS)
  3. your proposed research is in the public interest and benefit
  4. your research is not for commercial gain
  5. your project will not name people or name service providers
  6. you have the support of the organisation you work for
  7. your team members are all located in Australia.

If you cannot confirm all of these points, your project is likely not suitable at present.

Please contact AIHW at [email protected] if you would like to discuss the specifics of your project.

Once a project is approved, a new researcher induction training session will be organised with the project leader.

The NHDH may also be accessed to undertake a related program of analysis work. Researchers are welcome to submit a project proposal that describes a program of analysis work, rather than individual project proposals for each specific project. The researcher will need to describe the program of analysis and demonstrate how the program of analysis is related. Please contact AIHW at [email protected] if you would like to discuss the specifics of your analysis work.

Grant submissions

A quote for prospective data linkage projects, including grant applications, can be requested.

To request a quote, you must complete a short questionnaire. The questionnaire collects information that will allow a quote to be prepared. Please reach out to the [email protected] to request a questionnaire and grant quote.

It can take at least 3 weeks for a quote to be issued. Please ensure this timing is factored in when you reach out to us.

Costs

Approved researchers can access the data available in NHDH for approved projects. Researchers will access the NHDH data via an AIHW-managed instance of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Secure Environment for Analysing Data (SEAD).

SEAD

The AIHW-managed instance of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Secure Environment for Analysing Data (SEAD) comes with the following available features R, Python, Stata. Additional charges apply for the use of SAS and Databricks, which is offered to approved users for parallel processing. Larger size Virtual Machine sizes are also available at cost to test analysis configuration options.

For guidance on SEAD, please refer to the SEAD Information for Prospective Users [PDF 407KB].

About Databricks

Databricks requires specialised knowledge and is not a standard inclusion for projects.

Costs for Databricks are consumption based, changing dynamically based on processing power used, data size, and code efficiency – making potential cost estimates difficult to predict. Invoicing of Databricks consumption is issued twice: one for upfront access, and one post-financial year for consumption/usage.

For pricing and costs, please contact the NHDH via [email protected].

NHDH access price calculator

NHDH SEAD access fee schedule – 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 (all fees are exclusive of GST)

Table 1: One-off project fees (cost per project) – standard and complex projects
ItemsSEAD

Project establishment

  • IT project set-up
  • Project approvals
  • Onboarding training

$3,300 AUD

Table 2: Annual project fees (cost per project) – standard and complex projects
ItemsSEAD

Project curation

  • Ingress, egress, and external release approvals

  • Ongoing management

$3,300 AUD

Databricks (if required)

$2,750 AUD^ annual fee for the initial consumption cost. Additional charges based on consumption may apply wherein a second invoice will be issued at the anniversary of the project.

Table 3: Annual user fees (cost per researcher/analyst) – standard and complex projects
ItemsSEAD

Virtual machine

  • Set-up costs

  • Standard issue with CPU cores 8 and 64GB RAM

  • Access to LibreOffice

  • Access to Stata

$4,598 AUD^

Access to SAS

$1,375 AUD^

Table 4: Data linkage and extraction costs (cost per project) – complex projects only
ItemsSEAD

Linkage feasibility review

From $2,000 AUD

Bespoke linkage (per dataset cost)

From $19,500 AUD

Project scoping and subject matter expertise

From $2,000 AUD

NA – not applicable

^ Direct costs AIHW are charged by ABS for SEAD environment


Please contact the NHDH team via [email protected] to discuss your project and the charges that apply.