DARE Programme Director

Job Description

Post: National Digital Research Infrastructure Director, for the UK Trusted and Connected Data and Analytics Research Environments (DARE UK) Programme.Location: HDR UK Offices, Health Data Research UK, Gibbs Building, 215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE. As a result of the pandemic, staff are currently working remotely. All HDR UK roles are primarily based at the London offices, however we are flexibly working across a number of geographical locations. Travel will be required to HDR UK locations and partner organisations.Contract: Permanent, full time (secondments considered)Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer, HDR UKAbout Health Data Research UKHealth Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the national Institute for data science in health. Our UK team of experts develop and apply cutting-edge data science approaches to clinical, biological, genomic and other multi-dimensional health data to address the most pressing health research challenges facing the public. Our mission is to make game-changing improvements in the health of patients and populations through data science research and innovation.For the first time we are bringing together the UKs population-wide health data assets, enabling specialists across academia, industry and healthcare to unlock knowledge and deliver new insights from molecules to humans. By undertaking research at scale, across a population of up to 67 million people, we have an unrivalled opportunity to use data to the highest ethical standards to drive breakthroughs in medical research. This unleashes the potential to improve the way we are able to prevent, detect and diagnose diseases such as cancer, heart disease and asthma.At Health Data Research UK, we employ talented individuals who bring their own unique skills and experience to support the vision and benefit the whole team. About ADR UKAdministrative Data Research UK (ADR UK) is a partnership of government and academic groups, led by a team within UKRIs Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), working with UK government departments and devolved administrations to create linked research datasets from administrative sources, then making these available to researchers via the ADR UK Trusted Research Environment (TRE) network.Good government policy - policy that solves social and economic problems and improves lives - needs good evidence. But good quality evidence is expensive and time-consuming to produce, and evidence from academic research can also have a different focus from what government needs most to make policy decisions and deliver effective services.ADR UKs mission is to solve both these problems by transforming the way researchers access the UKs wealth of public sector data. By joining up the abundance of administrative data already being created by government and public bodies across the UK and making it available to approved researchers in a safe and secure way, we are enabling vital research that has the potential to lead to better informed policy decisions and more effective public services, in areas from improving education and healthcare to tackling crime.ADR UKs work plays an important role in bridging the gap between government and academia, enabling government policy to be informed by the best evidence available, and putting us on the path to a future in which the true potential of administrative data to improve society is realised.About UKRILaunched in April 2018, UKRI is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). UKRI brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England, which support research and knowledge exchange at higher education institutions in England, and the UKs innovation agency, Innovate UK, to create an independent organisation with a strong voice for research and innovation, and a vision to ensure the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation. More information can be found at www.ukri.org. DARE UK Programme (UK Trusted and Connected Data and Analytics Research Environments)The formation of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has provided an opportunity to develop a collective and coordinated vision for the research infrastructures in the UK, and specifically to create a coherent state-of-the-art national Digital Research Infrastructure that will enable UK researchers and innovators to harness the full power of multi-dimensional data, modern digital platforms, tools, techniques and skills.The UK Trusted and Connected Data and Analytics Research Environments programme (DARE-UK) aims to deliver a novel national federated digital infrastructure to establish the next generation of Trusted Research Environments (TREs) (i.e., secure, cloud-enabled environments for advanced analytics). It will: Define how organisations can best use data for public good whilst protecting sensitive information about individuals. Define the technologies, combined with changes in wider governance, policy and business frameworks, that could enable the sharing and use of data in a privacy-preserving manner. Support researchers to safely store (as and when required), but mainly process, curate, link and analyse potentially identifiable/sensitive data (generally, unconsented FAIR ified data from different modalities/sources) at UK scale; bring advanced analytical algorithms (e.g., AI/ML algorithms) to the data export software/algorithms and analyses results developed and produced within this environment.DARE UKs scope would include all research conducted by UKRI Councils that uses, or anticipates use of, large scale personal/sensitive data related to social, biomedical and environmental science relevant to humans. The programme will review existing infrastructure within each of the Councils, identify opportunities for joint-working, and novel approaches and innovations. It is envisaged that the DARE-UK programme would be delivered in three phases, with phases two and three dependent on the conclusions from phase one and the securing of the funding:Phase 1: Design and Dialogue (~13 months, July 2021 - July 2022)Phase 2: Build, Test and Establish (~12 months, August 2022 - July 2023)Phase 3: Deliver, Optimise and Federate (~35 months, August 2023 - May 2026)Phase 4: Scale up and broaden use cases to other sectors and research disciplines (indicates future activity/ not approved for funding currently).The first phase (Phase One - the foundational phase) of delivering to UKRI digital ambitions focusses on investment in a portfolio of high priority, timely and community-validated digital infrastructure requirements, based on a prioritisation exercise conducted by UKRIs Councils.Purpose and responsibilities of the postWe are seeking an exceptional individual to lead, in the first instance, the first phase of the DARE-UK programme. This individual will be responsible for leading a team to develop and deliver: A design for a novel and sustainable national federated digital inf