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About us

Accelerating better health for everyone

Our goal is to make it safe and straightforward for researchers to access health data today – helping unlock the treatments, diagnostics and technologies of tomorrow.

Behind every breakthrough treatment is data – and behind every dataset are patients who trust us to use it well.

Work with us
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about us

Our leadership

Dr Melanie Ivarsson OBE was appointed chief executive of HDRS in 2026. With experience spanning academia, industry and clinical development, she brings deep expertise in life sciences and innovation.

An image of Dr Melanie Ivarsson OBE

Strategic oversight for the service

An expert board will guide our strategic direction, bringing together expertise from across health, research, data governance and public engagement.

Baroness Nicola Blackwood

Chair

Baroness Blackwood is a recognised leader in life sciences and innovation. She is chair of Genomics England and of Oxford University Innovation, and also serves on the boards of biotechnology company BioNTech and investment fund RTW Biotech Opportunities.

Professor Lucy Chappell

Non-Executive Director

Professor Lucy Chappell is Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute for Health and Care Research. She is a Professor of Obstetrics and a practising NHS consultant.

Dr Beth Thompson

Non-Executive Director

Beth is executive director of policy and partnerships at Wellcome, where she leads government relations, strategic partnerships and policy. She has held a number of senior roles at Wellcome, including chief strategy officer.

Professor Michael Parker

Non- Executive Director

Michael Parker is Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Ethox Centre at Oxford University. His research focuses on ethical questions in genomics and data science, infectious diseases and global health. He helped establish the Global Health Bioethics Network.

Professor Ewan Birney

Non-Executive Director

Ewan is Director of EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), where he oversees the delivery of the world’s most comprehensive suite of biomolecular data. A longstanding researcher in genomics and computational biology and co-founder of key globally leading bioinformatics databases, including Ensembl.
Funding

Backed to succeed

The Prime Minister announced the creation of HDRS in April 2025, responding to recommendations set out in the Sudlow Review.

HDRS has been backed by up to £500m of funding from the UK government, and £100m from Wellcome. This level of investment reflects a shared ambition to transform how health data supports research. It will fund the infrastructure, partnerships and expertise needed to deliver the service.

Department of Health and Social Care & Department of Science Innovation and Technology

Wellcome, the global charitable foundation supporting science to improve health

Transparency

Freedom of Information

As a publicly owned company, HDRS is covered by the Freedom of Information Act. If you want to submit an FOI request, please use the ‘Contact Us’ section and label your message ‘FOI request’.

In your request you should outline as clearly as possible the information you are looking for, state the format you would like information (hard copy or electronic) and provide your full name and address, either postal or email, where you want to be contacted. Please also provide dates, if relevant, and list any people or organisations involved.

Our publication scheme