Remote access via Trusted Research Environments, to highly detailed, and closely controlled data in a ‘data lab’, is a booming industry. On a seemingly weekly basis, in the UK alone, there seem to be new TREs emerging and recent years have seen a plethora of reviews looking to set standards for the safe use of the most sensitive data. Principles are being defined, frameworks outlined, recommendations made. Since 2011 the Secure Data Access Professionals group (SDAP - https://securedatagroup.org/) has been bringing together the hard working practitioners who can give an insight into the workings ‘under the hood’ and how the 5-safes are operationalised in reality. In this presentation we’ll share practical experiences and worked examples of service delivery, with stories from people who do the job on the ground. From the nuts and bolts of managing researchers through the project lifecycle; through recruiting and developing new staff and managing broader service development; to looking forward at the emerging challenges and how to keep TRE provision current and responsive for the next generation of researchers, we’ll cover all the practicalities of running a Trusted Research Environment. If you’re already running, or thinking of setting up, a TRE we’ll provide insight on how to deal with the most common day-to-day challenges, sharing the practices we’ve developed collectively across the SDAP network over the last decade. We’ll also introduce some of the valuable resources produced by the network, including the SDAP SDC Handbook and the SDAP competency framework.