Our Future Health is the UK's largest health research programme, collecting health data and blood samples from up to five million volunteers to help prevent, detect and treat disease earlier.
Our Future Health is the UK's largest ever health research programme, designed to bring together up to five million volunteers to donate health information and blood samples. The resulting dataset is intended to give researchers and clinicians a detailed picture of the nation's health, in order to develop new ways to prevent, detect and treat disease. More than 2.5 million volunteers have signed up so far. The programme operates in partnership with the NHS and is backed by £79 million in initial UK Government funding, alongside support from life sciences companies and charities.
The programme's central asset is the Our Future Health research resource: a combined repository of volunteer health information and biological samples spanning genomics, biobanking and large-scale health data collection and analysis. The scale of the cohort is intended to support research into disease prevention and early detection at population level, and to underpin work on personalised approaches to healthcare. Technical domains covered by the programme include health data research, genomics, biobanking and biomedical research.
The programme is motivated by demographic pressures on the health system. Today 54% of people aged 65 and over in the UK live with two or more serious health conditions; on current projections that figure will reach 68% by 2035. Our Future Health is a public-private partnership operating across the United Kingdom, and states a mission to revolutionise how disease is fought so that people can live longer, healthier lives, with an explicit focus on health equity and the healthcare outcomes of future generations.