The Wellcome Institute and the UK Government are launching a major new health data research initiative worth up to £600 million.
This new service will streamline secure access to health data, accelerating research aimed at understanding illness and enabling the development of better tools for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Funded by £100 million from Wellcome and up to £500 million from the UK Government, the service will provide approved researchers with a single, secure access point to de-identified health data. By reducing barriers to vital datasets—such as primary care, hospital, and mortality records—the initiative aims to simplify the research process and unlock faster insights into health and disease.
Bringing together health data on a national scale will empower researchers to uncover deeper insights into human health, ultimately leading to more effective interventions, including in diagnostics.
The service will be developed in close collaboration with patient groups, as well as academic, clinical, and industry researchers. This collaborative approach will help to ensure that the system is world-class, patient-centred, and focused on tackling disease. It will also work closely with NHS experts, building on the significant progress already made in making health data more accessible for research.
The service will be based at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridgeshire, UK. Ultimately, the initiative aims to deliver the following benefits: enhance research opportunities; improve patient health; increase clinical trial participation; improve health services; and advance the UK’s research leadership.
