SAIL Databank will receive £4,551,338 of sustainability funding in a major £49m investment announcement by Health and Care Research Wales.
Recent years have been hugely successful for SAIL Databank, culminating in them being honoured by the award of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize. But as they head into the second half of the decade, they have no intention of resting upon their laurels.
The strategic vision for the continued development of SAIL between 2024 – 2030 is based upon a recurring theme of building and maintaining partnerships – with public representatives, a sister programme and technology provider SeRP and with key stakeholders such as Welsh Government and Swansea University.
Responding to the award, Co-director of SAIL Databank, Professor David Ford, said:
“We are incredibly grateful to Health and Care Research Wales for this sustainability funding for SAIL Databank over the next 5 years. Health and Care Research Wales have been a principal funder of SAIL Databank since we began in 2007.”
“The sustained funding we’ve received over those 18 years has enabled SAIL to become a world-leading and internationally acclaimed research resource, recognised as an integral part of the national informatics infrastructure within Wales and an innovation and thought leader across the UK. These contributions have helped us to build a trusted, robust and agile Trusted Research Environment for world-class research.”
“In recent years, this foundation underpinned a swift response to wide ranging Covid-19 research offering data-driven policy intelligence for the Welsh and UK Governments, with SAIL consistently the best performing centre across the four nations in terms of acquiring new data and undertaking projects.”
“This latest funding announcement will support the next chapter in the story of SAIL as we evolve to meet the demands of AI-enabled research, federated analytics and increasingly complex data types.”
SAIL Databank Key Achievements
Many of SAIL Databank’s recent achievements are highlighted in the 2023-2024 SAIL Databank annual report.
Some notable highlights include:
Awards
1. SAIL Databank was honoured with the Queen’s Anniversary Prize Award in November 2023. This prestigious award recognises exceptional innovation and impact in education and research, benefiting both academia and the wider public. It is the highest national honour awarded in UK further and higher education, granted by The Monarch every two years.
Key Partnerships & Collaborations
1. SAIL Databank played a vital role in Covid-19 research as part of the One Wales collaboration, serving as an essential tool for monitoring transmission and the pandemic’s long-term effects.
2. Research using SAIL data, published in The Lancet Public Health, examined how the sequence of disease acquisition affects life expectancy, shedding light on co-existing diseases and their impact on patient outcomes and healthcare resources.
3. SAIL Databank was part of a research group awarded £4.3 million for pioneering research into severe mental illness. This funding from UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) will advance the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of severe mental illness through a new Mental Health Platform Research Hub.
4. SAIL Databank received funding to enhance transparency in health data access, as part of a broader initiative by Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and the MRC. This marks a significant step toward increasing public trust in how health data is accessed and used.
Public Involvement & Engagement
1. SAIL Databank’s well-established Consumer Panel, now in its 13th year, remains central to its commitment to public engagement. The panel, recently expanded to 20 members, continues to welcome new participants to meet the high demand for its input.
2. From April 2023 to March 2024, the Consumer Panel supported key initiatives such as Data and Analytics Research Environments (DARE) UK, Networked Data Lab (NDL) Wales, Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), Serenity, and SAIL Databank/Swansea University.
Core Metrics (reporting period 2023-2024)
• 29 jobs created in Wales, plus 14 additional jobs via direct funding
• 56 group collaborations won during reporting period (value of £72.2 million)
• 51 publications
• 12 public involvement opportunities created
• 2 public engagement events held
Find out more about Health and Care Research Wales’ other investments.