NAMsDB

Open data and API

Everything in this directory is free to download and reuse. Universities, funders and other directories can pull it straight into their own tools. No account, no key, no tracking.

Download the catalogue

All 40 resources, release 2026.10.0. Files are named with today's date so you can cite the version you used.

Direct links: CSV · JSON

API

Read-only JSON over HTTPS. Each endpoint is a static file on a CDN, so responses are fast and the API stays up even if everything else is down. Please be kind: cache results rather than calling on every page view.

EndpointReturns
/api/v1/resources.jsonEvery resource
/api/v1/resources/uk-biobank.jsonOne resource by id
/api/v1/categories/drug-safety-toxicology.jsonOne category
/api/v1/countries/GB-WLS.jsonOne country or region (ISO code)
/api/v1/vocabularies.jsonCategories, data types, access levels and other lists
/api/v1/synonyms.jsonThe search synonym list
/api/v1/schema.jsonJSON Schema for one entry (for partners supplying data)
/api/v1/openapi.jsonOpenAPI 3.1 description

Example

import requests

data = requests.get("https://namsdb.uk/api/v1/resources.json").json()
for r in data["resources"]:
    if "pregnancy" in r.get("population_groups", []):
        print(r["name"], "-", r["url"])

Fields

Each resource follows the published JSON Schema. Coded values (categories, data types, access levels) are listed in vocabularies.json. Countries use ISO 3166 codes, languages ISO 639, dates ISO 8601.

Categories
  • gateways National gateways and data access services
  • health-records Health record databases
  • biobanks-cohorts Biobanks and population cohorts
  • registries Disease and procedure registries
  • drug-safety-toxicology Drug safety, toxicology and human exposure
  • social-admin Social and administrative data
  • clinical-trials Clinical trial registries and results data
  • lab-computational Human-based laboratory and computational data
  • directories-standards Directories, catalogues and data standards

Citable releases

Each numbered release is frozen and never changed, so you can cite exactly the version you used.

The first numbered release will be published at launch. The current working version is 2026.10.0.

Licence

The catalogue data is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You can copy, adapt and share it for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you credit The Alliance for Cruelty Free Science and savethedogs.uk and link back here.

Suggested credit: Data from NAMsDB, The Alliance for Cruelty Free Science and savethedogs.uk, release 2026.10.0, CC BY 4.0.

Supply data from your country

Partner organisations can send entries as a spreadsheet using the same column names as the schema (lists separated by semicolons), or as JSON. Entries are reviewed by a curator before they appear.