Our Future Health is open for research applications

Did you know that the UK’s largest ever health research programme is now accepting study applications from health researchers? 

Our Future Health is designed to help researchers discover new ways to prevent, detect and treat diseases. The programme is creating an incredibly detailed picture of the UK’s health, by asking millions of volunteers to share their health information, and the team has shared an update with WCRC as below.

Over two million people have already volunteered – including thousands of participants in Wales. Taken together, their health information offers researchers an exciting new window onto the causes and risks of diseases including cancer.

Understanding Our Future Health’s data

When volunteers sign up to Our Future Health, they:

1. Answer a questionnaire about their health and lifestyle.
2. Attend an appointment, where they have some physical measurements taken and are asked to donate a sample of blood for DNA analysis.
3. Give permission for their information to be linked to their health records.

Volunteers can also agree to be contacted by Our Future Health on behalf of health researchers in the future, to invite them to take part in follow-on research.

For researchers, the resource can facilitate a new generation of discovery and translational research that will advance the development and testing of early diagnostic technologies and preventative interventions. 

Importantly, these discoveries should work for everyone. Not only is the scale of the cohort unprecedented, it is also impressively diverse. Our Future Health has committed to building a resource that truly reflects the UK population, so we can identify differences in how diseases begin and progress in people from different backgrounds. 

That’s why the programme is opening clinics in Wales and offering people across the nation the chance to take part. The first Welsh clinics opened in Boots stores in Bridgend, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Swansea, and Wrexham, with more to follow. Our Future Health anticipates providing more than 70,000 appointment opportunities in Wales over the coming months.

The programme is also providing Welsh-language information, to help ensure everyone in our community has the opportunity to join.

Applying to access the data

Our Future Health empowers in-depth analysis of health trends and risk factors specific to communities in Wales. 

To learn more about how the resource can help your research area, and apply to access the data, visit research.ourfuturehealth.org.uk.

You can also view a video that explains how researchers securely access the information.

Help amplify awareness

Our Future Health hopes that researchers in Wales will pass on their message, so that people in Wales are properly represented in the resource. You can do this in your own networks, such as on social media or among colleagues. Contact lynn.clarkwright@ourfuturehealth.org.uk to request further information and materials that raise awareness.

For more on Our Future Health in Wales, please refer to the press release here, which includes comments from the Chief Medical Officer for Wales, Sir Frank Atherton, and the Director of Health and Care Research Wales, Professor Kieran Walshe.