MRC Biomedical Data Science Leadership Awards Brochure

This brochure has been developed collaboratively by the five MRC Biomedical Data Science Leadership Award Projects and is intended to disseminate our shared vision for this award as well as our own project activities. Introduction to award and projects: The MRC Biomedical Data Science Leadership Awards (BDSLA) aim to strengthen the inclusion, quality, and recognition of data science within biomedical research by fostering thought leadership, innovative approaches, and a more inclusive research culture. MRC BDSLA was launched in response to the MRC’s 2022 Biomedical Data Science Review, which identified the need for coordinated action across four key challenges: developing strong biomedical data science leadership; improving access, recognition, and support for multidisciplinary teams; enhancing quality, standards, and professionalisation; and adopting inclusive approaches to growing skills capacity and improving career pathways. In 2024, the MRC funded five cross-institute collaborative awards to address leadership and collaboration challenges and to generate evidence on how biomedical research can better incorporate, resource, and recognise high-quality data science across the research landscape. These projects bring together interdisciplinary teams to develop practical approaches, tools, and frameworks that can be adopted across the biomedical research community: ABDC – Advancing Biomedical Data Science Careers BIOMEDASA – Biomedical Data Science Accelerator HxC – Healthier Science through Collaboration INTEGRATE – Embedding a supportive culture for data science in biomedical research PROMOTE – Progressing Routes and Opportunities through Mentoring, Openness, Training, and Equity Alongside their individual objectives for supporting interdisciplinary research, the five teams have developed strong cross-award relationships, supported by an innovative MRC mechanism that provided additional resources for collaborative activities. This multi-institute and cross-sector approach has enabled knowledge exchange across a wide range of UK research organisations regarding both barriers and new ways of working to support interdisciplinary research.