EBI will be partner in Big Data project for health research

Health Data Research UK will invest £30 million in a newly developed big data approach for health and biomedical informations from all over the country. Starting in April 2018, only six sites in the UK with high-class expertise in the management of health data will be part of the new public venture.

Together with the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) in Hinxton, UK, was now chosen to form the `Cambridge site´ of the venture. EBI, the British member center in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), is one of 29 partners cooperating closely in the European Research Infrastructure INFRAFRONTIER.

For long years already the EBI is specialised in using huge numbers of health data to derive new knowledge and scientific discovery from big data analysis in biomedical research. „The volume of health data is already vast today – and we have every reason to expect it will continue to grow quickly. This is why science must find efficient ways to harness this data for both clinical research and practicing medicine,” says Helen Parkinson, Head of Molecular Archival Resources at EMBL-EBI.

„Data Sharing is essential for improving our understanding of human health and disease,” explains Ewan Birney, Director of EMBL-EBI. „Contributing our expertise in big data analysis within HDR UK is an exciting opportunity for us to take part in the development of biomedical informatics institutes across Europe, and beyond.“

Health Data Research UK (HDRUK) is a joint investment co-ordinated by the Medical Research Council (MRC), working in partnership with the British Heart Foundation, the National Institute for Health Research, and a great number of other public institutions in the United Kingdom.