The Pioneer Centre is anchored at Aarhus University with hub sites at each of the three universities and with a total grant of DKK 250 million (approximately £28.5 million).
The Pioneer Centre for SMARTbiomed (Statistical and Computational Methods for Advanced Research to Transform Biomedicine), will collect and analyse large amounts of data from both Danish and international registers and biobanks to learn more about, among other things, risk factors, relationships, patterns, treatment and consequences for diseases as diverse as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, psychiatric diseases and endometriosis.
The Pioneer Centre has three main objectives:
- To bring together multidisciplinary research teams to develop new methods for analysing biomedical data.
- To develop data platforms and software for biomedical research that are based on real medical issues and that are easily applicable.
- To establish an internationally leading learning and career environment in health data research.
Professor Naomi Wray, Michael Davys Professor of Psychiatric Genetics in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, will be head of the SMARTbiomed Pioneer Centre. Professor Wray will also take up a position at Aarhus University. She says:
Collecting large amounts of biomedical data and using them to improve disease management requires both medical, statistical and computational approaches. SMARTbiomed will bring together a group of international researchers who know how to ask the right questions, who understand the complexity of data and who can translate it all into advanced treatment of diseases and disorders common in society."
SMARTbiomed is anchored at Aarhus University, and Rector Brian Bech Nielsen is pleased that the collaboration has been successfully established.
"Collecting and analysing health data at this scale is important for our understanding and treatment of diseases. This is why this new pioneering centre is a big step forward for international health research. I'm both happy and proud that Aarhus University is hosting this unique collaboration between three strong international universities," says Brian Bech Nielsen.
SMARTbiomed has become a reality on the initiative of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science and thanks to a total donation of DKK 250 million from the Lundbeck Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Villum Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation, and the Danish National Research Foundation.
Senior Vice President of the Lundbeck Foundation, Jan Egebjerg, says: "SMARTbiomed is another strong example of how a joint effort between public and private foundations can boost a basic research field, in this case benefiting a number of biomedical research areas. And we believe that we need to work across disciplines and national borders if we are to strengthen Danish research so we can solve complex global health problems."
The leadership team for the Centre also includes members of the Big Data Institute at the University of Oxford: Professor Chris Holmes, Professor Cecilia Lundgren and Professor Peter Visscher.