Cross Driver Integration
Driving new insights into environment, health and inequalities
Across our Research Driver Programmes, there is a wealth of multidisciplinary data science expertise, and use of different ‘modes’ or types of data. This enables exciting opportunities for integration and collaboration across Drivers to work together on cross-cutting priority topics that benefit from expertise across different disciplines.
Enviroment and Health
By bringing together health-related data from sources such as cohort studies and administrative data, with environmental data — such as weather conditions, air pollution levels, and noise exposure — researchers can better understand how the environment affects our health and contribute to health inequalities.
These are key aims of the Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Research Driver Programme, and across our wider Driver Programmes, understanding how environmental exposures such as air pollution and temperature affect health outcomes are increasingly become more of a priority.
A collaborative UK-Germany effort
Led by Professor Angela Wood, co-lead Big Data for Complex Diseases Driver Programme, and Professor Annette Peters (Helmholtz Munich) , HDRUK were awarded funding a UKRI International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) to strengthen partnerships between HDR UK and Helmholtz Centres in Germany.
Driver Programmes who participated in this initiative included Social and Environmental Determinants of Health, Inflammation and Immunity and Molecules to Health Records, with HDRUK Regions such as HDR UK Wales also represented .
Workshops
In-person workshops in 2025 across London and Munich included over 150 attendees attending in person. UK wide representation included members of the HDR UK community, and wider stakeholders such as DARE UK, UK Biobank, SAIL Databank, Met Office, NERC Digital Solutions Programme and Centre for Environmental Health and Sustainability.
German partners and stakeholders included members of the Helmholtz Centres community and partners, including German NAKO cohort, German Human Genome-Phenome Archive (GHGA) and the German Aerospace Centre.
The workshops explored priority topics including:
- Data infrastructure and solutions to promote cross country analysis
- Methodological challenges and opportunities
- UK and Germany data sources that could be utilised for cross country comparisons
Travel Awards
As part of this initiative, 14 travel awards were granted to UK and German researchers to support short-term placements across HDRUK Member Institutes and Helmholtz Centres to develop new partnerships and collaborative projects.
Webinar Series
A dedicated webinar series took place showcasing the outputs of the travel awards, and scientific expertise, data and infrastructure across the UK and Germany that can accelerate partnership working in environment and health.
You can access recordings of selected previous webinars by clicking on the webinar titles below. They’re also available on the Futures platform here
Data Sourcing and Enabling Infrastructure
German National Cohorts – Understanding the Link Between Environmental Exposures and Health
The final report for this collaboration, including summaries of the travel awards will be published here soon.
Inequalities
Health inequalities are unfair, avoidable and systematic differences in health across the population, and between different groups of people. These include how long people are likely to live, the health conditions they may experience and the care that is available to them. The conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age can impact our health and wellbeing.
Harnessing advanced data science expertise to understand and address health inequalities is a core aim of all HDRUK Research Driver Programmes.
The Big Data for Complex Disease Driver Programme hosted the Cross-Driver Inequalities Workshop in March 2025 in London.
The event brought together all of HDR UK’s Driver Programmes, Regional Networks, and key stakeholders including NIHR Determinants of Health Collaborations, DHSC Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Nuffield Trust, members of the public and UK wide data providers and public health agencies, to explore how linked datasets can be used to better understand and address health inequalities.
A full report of the workshop and its outcomes can be read by scanning the QR code below:
