The Big Data Institute (BDI) held an institute-wide event, on Friday 21 April, as an opportunity for the Director, Professor Cecilia Lindgren, to update staff and students on developments and plans for the Institute.
The event provided a forum to update on recent progress, including appointment into a new BDI Senior Leadership Team, and for conversations about future work and collaborations.
Cecilia said, ‘Our vision is to improve human health by leveraging large scale biomedical data combined with cutting-edge data science. We have an exceptional team and world-class facilities that are already enabling us to advance our understanding and treatment of human disease. Over the next five years, we intend to firmly establish the BDI locally, nationally and internationally as a world-leading biomedical big data institute.
‘We were delighted to be able to announce that Professor Eva Morris has agreed to take on the role of BDI Deputy Director. With extensive expertise in health data epidemiology, Eva forges important links to the NHS, working with crucial funders such as the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and Health Data Research UK. She takes over from Professor Sir Martin Landray, who has been an instrumental driving force in the BDI since its genesis, and to whom we are very grateful.’
Eva also takes on the new role of BDI Associate Head (Translation and Culture) to support the Director together with Professor Thomas Nichols who will fulfil the role of BDI Associate Head (Innovation and Training).
Attendees also heard about the Institute’s focus on core strengths in (gen)omics, electronic phenotyping, machine learning and health data science, with underpinning efforts in clinical translation, scientific computing, training and ethics.