Turning up the signal for the UK Human and Health Data Communities

HDR UK (member of ELIXIR-UK since 2023) has joined forces with ELIXIR-UK to strengthen the UK Human Data Community convened by ELIXIR-UK in 2023. The collaboration supports closer alignment and shared visibility across the UK human data research infrastructure and health data spaces, and their contributions to ELIXIR, related European initiatives and further international ones. 

As part of this collaboration, Wendi Bacon (HDR UK) joins the community leadership team, working alongside Tim Beck (University of Nottingham) and Saskia Lawson-Tovey (University of Manchester), who co-lead the community on behalf of ELIXIR-UK.

The leadership expansion reflects a shared commitment to amplifying voices, surfacing ongoing work and improving connection across communities working with sensitive human and health data. The community provides a regular forum for discussion, knowledge exchange and coordination across UK and European initiatives, with a focus on infrastructure, tooling and practice.

This renewed energy brings in a change of title, with the community expanding from the UK Human Data Community to the UK Human Data and Tech Club. By embracing new ideas and working together to implement them, ELIXIR-UK aims to create a more open, friendly and relatable environment for professionals in the field. 

ELIXIR-UK brings long-standing expertise in community building, coordination and engagement across distributed research infrastructures. HDR UK contributes strong links to the UK health data research ecosystem, including oversight of DARE UK, which focuses on enabling secure and effective use of sensitive data. Together, the leadership team supports a more joined-up space for sharing activities, identifying common goals and enabling dialogue across organisational and disciplinary boundaries.

The UK Human Data and Tech Club meets monthly and is open to anyone interested in human data research infrastructure and technology, across all career stages and roles. Although focused on UK priorities, we invite international voices to join our conversation for further knowledge exchange.
Visit the community page for more details.