Health Data Research UK is delighted to welcome its three, newest appointees to the Non-Executive Board.
Together with the existing seven members, the new appointees will share in the collective responsibility for the effective governance and development of Health Data Research UK and agree the strategic direction with the Institute Director and the senior leadership team.
Dr Graham Spittle, Chair of Health Data Research UK, commented: “I am delighted to welcome Frances, Lucy and Sarah to the Board of Health Data Research UK. Each brings tremendous expertise and will complement the strengths of our existing non-Executive Directors. With their combined input and commitment, we have the opportunity to maximise the health benefits of data science across the UK.”
Professor Sarah Harper CBE – Appointed June 2018
Sarah is Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford, a Fellow at University College, and the Founding Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. Sarah served on the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, which advises the Prime Minister on the scientific evidence for strategic policies and frameworks. In 2017, she served as the Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Sarah is a Director and Trustee of the UK Research Integrity Office.
She chaired the UK government’s Foresight Review on Ageing Populations (2014-2016) and has chaired the Evaluation board of the Active Ageing Index for the EC/UNECE Population Board since 2015. She is a Governor of the Pensions Policy Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Anthropology Institute.
Sarah was appointed a CBE in 2018 for services to Demography.
Dr Frances Rawle – Appointed September 2018
Dr Frances Rawle is Director of Policy, Ethics and Governance at the Medical Research Council. In this role she is responsible for governance and accountability for the MRC within UK Research and Innovation, including supporting the MRC’s Council, and for responding to and shaping the changing regulatory and policy environment relating to medical research. This includes development and implementation of policies in areas such as good research practice, research integrity, data sharing and transparency, open access publishing, research using personal data and research involving animals. She also has responsibility for research ethics and leads the MRC’s work aimed at improving reproducibility in biomedical research.
Dr Rawle has a PhD in immunology and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the UK and the USA before joining the MRC as a programme manager for AIDS research in 1991. Since then she has had various roles at the MRC, including programme manager for public health, leading the early planning stages of UK Biobank, head of the Research Careers group and leading the Molecular and Cellular Medicine group. In her spare time, she is chair of governors at a primary school.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG – Appointed September 2018
Baroness (Lucy) Neville-Rolfe was appointed a Life Peer in 2013 and served as a minister in the Business and Culture departments (2014-16) and as Commercial Secretary to the Treasury from December 2016 to June 2017. She is Chairman of Assured Food Standards and a non-executive director of Capita plc.
Lucy worked at Tesco PLC (1997–2013), serving on the plc Board from 2006.
Before Tesco, Lucy was a civil servant having served in the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1973 to 1992, the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit at Number 10 from 1992 to 1994 and as Director of the Deregulation Unit until she joined Tesco.
