Dr Rhoswyn Walker has been appointed by Health Data Research UK as Chief Strategy Officer, to support the mission of making game changing improvements in the health of patients and populations.  

Rhos will lead the development of HDR UK’s scientific strategy, working with the Institute’s research leaders and partners to deliver world class scientific programmes.

This important leadership role will see Rhos manage relationships between stakeholders in academia, industry, the NHS and the third sector to help develop and implement HDR UK’s national research and infrastructure programmes at scale.

Rhos joins HDR UK from the Medical Research Council (MRC) where she was Head of Informatics Research and shaped the MRC’s data science strategy.  This included leading the establishment of Health Data Research UK, as well as overseeing the MRC’s relationship with organisations such as the European Bioinformatics Institute and NHS Digital.

Professor Andrew Morris said:

“We are thrilled that Rhos is joining the team and I am looking forward to her leading our scientific strategy development. Rhos comes having made an outstanding contribution at the MRC and is perfectly placed to support our plans to deliver innovative health data science at scale across the UK.”

Dr Rhos Walker said:

“I’m very excited to be joining the HDR UK team.  HDR UK has a unique opportunity to harness the skills and expertise across the UK needed to unlock insights from our varied and rich data resources.  I look forward to working with HDR UK’s research teams and partners across the UK to deliver high impact research at scale.

Prior to this she held a number of posts at the MRC, including responsibility for the cancer, cellular imaging and medical bioinformatics portfolios within the Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board and managing the MRC’s studentship, fellowship and skills investments.