A £13m programme will train healthcare professionals as clinician data scientists, combining clinical expertise with advanced data science skills.
The PhD programme, called MEDATA, will provide training across a range of healthcare professions.
The initiative aims to address a growing skills gap as health datasets become increasingly large and complex.
Professor Marion Bennie, academic lead of the programme at Strathclyde, said: “Strathclyde has a strong track record in data science, leading the development of our NHS Scotland national medicines assets, and developing our pharmacy workforce to deliver new insights and pathways for the safe and effective use of medicines in clinical practice.
“We look forward to working with academic partners to attract clinicians across the disciplines, to create the next generation of clinician data scientists in partnership with our health system partners.
“Securing fully funded clinical PhDs is a major step forward in creating a sustainable pharmacist academic pathway.”
MEDATA will focus on medicines-related data science, training fellows to generate insights that could support the discovery of new medicines and improve the use of existing treatments.
The programme will also provide bespoke mentoring and career development opportunities, alongside training in collaborative, computationally enabled research environments.
It will be led by the University of Liverpool, with the University of Strathclyde as a partner, and delivered in partnership with Health Data Research UK and the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge and Leeds.
The initiative is supported by £12m from Wellcome and a further £1m from Health Data Research UK.
Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, David Weatherall Chair of Medicine at the University of Liverpool, and NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics and co-director of the HDR UK Medicines in Acute and Chronic Care Driver Programme, said: “Data science is rapidly changing the way we understand disease and develop treatments, but we need healthcare professionals who can bridge the worlds of clinical practice and advanced analytics.
“MEDATA will create a new generation of clinician data scientists, equipped to use complex health data to improve medicines development and patient care.”
Professor Sir Andrew Morris, director of HDR UK, added: “The medicines and treatments of tomorrow will depend on our ability to harness the extraordinary power of health data today.
“MEDATA will help ensure we have the skilled people needed to turn data into discovery, and discovery into better outcomes for patients.”
