In our penultimate episode of season 3, and this year, we are delighted to be speaking with David Seymour, Director of Infrastructure and Services, and Paola Quattroni, Head of Alliance Strategy & Engagement, at the Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) network, Data Science Institute, and UK Health Data Research Alliance. Both initally outline their careers to date, and both David and Paola have very applicable experience in working to ensure data utilisation by researchers in elderly care and oncology respectively.

We start with the history of HDR UK, the national institute of health data science, with a mission to unite health relevant data to enable discoveries that improve peoples' lives, with a 20-year vision to ensure advanced analytics to benefit every clinical interaction, clinical trials and public health (as seen with COVID-19). Founded in 2018, HDR UK is undergoing its 5-year review of what it has achieved and what it proposes to achive over the next 5 years, focused on three pillars, (1) delivering ground breaking research via its driver programmes, (2), bringing together infrastructure and services across the UK and internationally enabling large-scale data use in a trustworthy way, and (3), working through partnerships at a local level in the UK, as well as internationally, to meet its goals.

In the remainder of the episode, we discuss these there domains further, with respect to HDR UK, but also the development of the UK Health Data Research Alliance, in particular to ensure trustworthy use of health data, including patient and public involvement. We explore some of the challenges HDRUK and the Alliance have faced, and how the institution has responded to them, for instance with the use of the '5 Safes' framework.

EHDEN is delighted to be collaborating with HDR UK on the final Data Partner Call at time of this episode, with HDR UK supporting some of the UK applicants if selected and ongoing partnership with our combined network Data Partners in the UK and EU.