The Health Research Authority (HRA) is committed to protecting and promoting the interests of patients and the public in health research. We work to ensure that health research is ethically reviewed and approved, and that it is conducted in a way that respects the rights, safety, dignity, and well-being of research participants.

We are currently rebuilding the Integrated Research Application System (IRAS) portal using Government Digital Service (GDS) standards and a microservice architecture. This modernization effort aims to enhance user experience, improve system reliability, and ensure scalability.

Our decision to rebuild the portal is driven by several key factors:

• User Experience: The current system has limitations that affect usability. By adopting GDS standards, we aim to create a more intuitive and user-friendly interface.
• Performance and Scalability: The existing architecture struggles with performance issues and cannot easily scale to meet growing demands. A microservice architecture will allow us to build a more robust and scalable system.
• Security: Modernizing the portal will enable us to implement the latest security best practices, ensuring the protection of sensitive data.
• Compliance: Adhering to GDS standards ensures that our system meets government requirements and best practices for digital services.

We believe in the power of open-source development to foster innovation, collaboration, and transparency. By making our projects open-source, we aim to engage with the wider community, encourage contributions, and ensure that our work benefits from diverse perspectives and expertise.

Following GDS guidelines, we are committed to making our source code open and reusable. This approach allows others to benefit from our work, learn from our experiences, and contribute to the continuous improvement of our projects.

We welcome the contribution, please refer to the README file for each repository. The README includes guidelines on how to contribute, ensuring that you can effectively collaborate with other contributors and help improve the project. Your contributions are valuable, and we encourage you to review these guidelines to get started.