How we’re governed

Our governance has been developed and is reviewed in line with the Charity Governance Code. It ensures the right level of challenge and advice is provided to the Trustees and Executives on important aspects of the programme.

Our governance is designed to provide the right level of challenge and advice on key aspects of our programme. It also ensures we can work effectively with the partners who help to fund, support and deliver our programme.  

The public is represented at multiple levels within our governance, to make sure the benefits of the programme are delivered across the population of the UK.

For more specific information about how we’re governed an updated version of our governance manual will be available soon.

Our Future Health Group Boards

We have two group boards that are responsible for the management of all aspects of Our Future Health. These are: 

Our Future Health Board of Trustees 

Our Future Health is governed by a Board of Trustees, who are ultimately responsible for the policies, activities and assets of Our Future Health and provide strategic leadership. Trustees serve on the Board in a voluntary capacity.

Read more about our Board of Trustees.

Meetings of the Board are currently scheduled for 17 January, 4 March, 7 May, 15 July, and 23 October 2025.

Our Future Health Trading Ltd Board 

The Board of Trustees established a trading subsidiary, Our Future Health Trading Limited, to carry out specific activities in furtherance of the charity’s objectives. Our Trading Board Directors are responsible for entering into funding agreements, licensing access rights, and entering into translational research projects with external parties.

Read more about our Trading Board.

Board Sub-Committees

Audit & Risk Committee

Provides oversight of all aspects of financial and risk management and ensures an appropriate relationship with the charity’s auditors.

  • Chair: Richard Sexton
  • Mary Calam
  • Kemal Malik
  • Tim Peakman

Nomination & Remuneration Committee  

Oversees the appointment of new Trustees to the Board and ensures a formal and transparent procedure for developing policy on senior management remuneration.

  • Chair: John Bell
  • Sally Osman
  • Richard Sexton
  • Fiona Watt

Data Protection and Information Security Committee  

Ensures compliance with all matters related to the protection and privacy of data, including protecting a participant’s privacy and rights.

  • Chair: Ciaran Martin
  • Mary Calam
  • Alison Hall (member of Ethics Advisory Board)
  • Adrian Hennah
  • Ben Laurie (member of Technology Advisory Board)

Culture and Values Committee

  • Chair: Sally Osman
  • Mary Calam
  • Adrian Hennah
  • Richard Sexton

Operational Boards 

These boards have a dual role of providing invaluable advice to the Board of Trustees and Executive, while also being authorised to make important decisions in specific defined areas. 

Access Board 

Responsible for access to Our Future Health data, samples and participants. Learn more about our access board.

Founders Board 

Brings together the charity and industry partners who are co-funding the establishment of the Our Future Health programme.

Implementation Board 

Oversees decisions which will impact the delivery and implementation of the Our Future Health programme.

  • Jonathan Berg. NHS Research Scotland Lead for Genetics and Rare Diseases
  • Anna Dominiczak. Chief Scientist (Health), Scottish Government
  • Clare Hambling. National Clinical Director for Diabetes and Obesity, NHS England
  • Sue Hill. Chief Scientific Officer for England
  • Gail Marzetti. Director of Science, Research & Evidence, DHSC
  • Ian McKay. Deputy Challenge Director, Accelerating Detection of Disease, Data to Early Diagnosis & Precision Medicine, Innovate UK, UKRI
  • Gail Miflin. Chief Medical Officer and Director of Clinical Services, NHSBT
  • Clare Perkins. Deputy Director, Prevention Services, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, DHSC
  • Verena Stocker. Director of Innovation, Research, Life Sciences and Strategy, NHS England
  • Carys Thomas. Head of Policy, Research and Development Division, Welsh Government
  • Victoria Tzortziou-Brown. Vice-Chair of External Affairs, Royal College of General Practitioners
  • Jonathan Valabhji
  • Bryan Williams. Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, British Heart Foundation
  • Ian Young. Chief Scientific Advisor, Director of Research for Health and Social Care, Northern Ireland

Advisory Boards 

Our Future Health has a range of advisory boards, which have been established to ensure that the Board of Trustees and the Executive have ready access to high quality expertise and knowledge in a range of areas that are key to the success of Our Future Health 

With the exception of the Scientific Advisory Board, each board includes at least one member of the public, to ensure that the public’s view is represented in these important aspects of our programme.

Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board

Supports Our Future Health in our aim to recruit participants from a diverse range of backgrounds.

  • Chair: Dr Andrew Willis. Senior Post Doc Researcher, HRB Clinical Research Facility, School of Public Health, University College Cork
  • Sophie Duncan. Co-director, National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement
  • Sasha Henriques.  Principal Genetic Counsellor, PhD candidate, Wellcome Connecting Science 
  • Jane Wells. Engagement Producer, Collective Act
  • Avril Lee

Ethics Advisory Board 

Monitors the development of Our Future Health to make sure it meets high ethical and governance standards across all its activities.

  • Chair: Professor Michael Parker. Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Ethox Centre at the University of Oxford
  • Natalie Banner PhD. Director of Ethics at Genomics England
  • Professor Bobbie Farsides. Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics, Brighton and Sussex Medical School
  • Alison Hall. Senior Humanities Advisor, PHG Foundation
  • Emily Lam. Interested citizen
  • Professor Melinda Mills MBE FBA. Director, Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science
  • Richard Milne PhD. Head of Research and Dialogue, Engagement and Society, Wellcome Connecting Science
  • Mr Manoj Mistry MBA MSc. Family Carer and Public Contributor at NHS England / Health Education England
  • Nicola Perrin MBE. Chief Executive, Association of Medical Research Charities
  • Dr Imran Rafi. Reader in Primary Care and Genomics, St George’s, University of London
  • Dr Nayha Sethi LLB LLM PhD. Chancellor’s Fellow in Data Driven Innovation, Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh

Public Advisory Board 

Comprises members of the general public and study participants to work with us on all aspects of Our Future Health.

  • Chair: Andy Bailey. Civil Engineer and past member of a Local GP Surgery Patient Participation Group
  • Nikki Adams
  • Sarah Amoss
  • Ruby Bhatti
  • Rob Eadon, Acoustic Consultant
  • Pamela M Gregory MA. Former Special Educational Needs Coordinator at a Secondary Academy
  • Rob Higgins
  • Martin Hughes. Science Safety Advisor (retired)
  • Lyndsey Irwin. Head of Marketing, Communications & Outreach within the HR function, Northern Ireland Civil Service. Also involved in freelance marketing and comms consultancy work
  • Rashmi Kumar
  • Emily Lam
  • Terry Lock
  • Sarah Markham
  • Manoj Mistry
  • Hina Nazir. Personal and Professional Coach (own business). Foster Carer. BSc Psychology and PGCE
  • Stella O’Brien
  • Mrs Angela Robin. Parts Advisor in the automotive industry
  • Shivanand Shastri

Scientific Advisory Board 

Works with Our Future Health to ensure that research meets the highest ethical and scientific standards.

  • Chair: Professor William G Dixon. Professor of Digital Epidemiology, University of Manchester
  • Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio. University of Cambridge
  • Inês Barroso, PhD. Professor of Diabetes, University of Exeter
  • Professor Linda Bauld, Bruce and John Usher Professor of Public Health and Co-Head of the Centre for Population Health Sciences at the University of Edinburgh and Chief Social Policy Adviser to the Scottish Government
  • Professor Alastair K Denniston PhD MRCP FRCOphth. Consultant Ophthalmologist/Director of INSIGHT, the Health Data Research Hub for Eye Health
  • Professor Ros Eeles, Professor and Group Leader at the Institute of Cancer Research and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology and Oncogenetics at The Royal Marsden
  • Professor Thalia Eley, Professor of Developmental Behavioural Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London
  • Professor Paul Elliott. Chair in Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine, Imperial College London
  • Professor Ann John. Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry, Health Data Science, Swansea University’
  • Professor Kamlesh Khunti CBE FMedSci, Professor of Primary Care Diabetes & Vascular Medicine, University of Leicester
  • Professor Amy Jayne McKnight. Professor of Molecular Epidemiology and Public Health, Queens University Belfast
  • Professor Melinda Mills MBE FBA. Director, Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science
  • Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed PhD FRP FMedSci. David Weatherall Chair of Medicine, University of Liverpool
  • Dr Martin Myers MBE, PhD, FRCPath. Consultant Clinical Biochemist and Laboratory Director
  • Professor Cathie Sudlow BMBCh MSc DPhil FRCPE FRSE FMedSci OBE. Director, BHF Data Science Centre, Health Data Research UK
  • Professor Nicholas Timpson. Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Principal Investigator of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children

Technology Advisory Board 

Advises regarding the main Our Future Health platform technology solutions and decisions.

  • Chair: Clive Gringras. Partner and Head of Technology, Media and Telecoms, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
  • James Babbage, Director General (Threats – Economic and Organised Crime), National Crime Agency
  • Simon Bolton, Non-Executive Director and Advisor with a specific interest in technology across the healthcare and education sectors, previously CEO of NHS Digital
  • Cennydd Bowles, technology ethicist and interaction designer, Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Elon University and former Principal Technology Advisor to the Information Commissioners Office
  • Desigan Chinniah. Member of the Tor Project board and former Mozilla Firefox exec
  • Gary Davis. Global Director of Privacy & Law Enforcement Requests, Apple
  • Jeff Hammerbacher, Board Member, Investor and Advisor, Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina
  • Professor Chris Holmes. Professor of Biostatistics, University of Oxford
  • Emily Jefferson, Chief Technology Officer at Health Data Research UK, Interim Director of DARE UK and Professor of Health Data Science
  • Diana Kennedy, Chief Technology Officer at Bupa
  • Ben Laurie. Principal Engineer, Security, Google Research
  • Chris Lunt. Chief Technology Officer, All of Us Research Program, USA National Institutes of Health
  • Dr Sarah Markham PhD. Visiting Researcher, Department of Biostatistics & Health Informatics, King’s College London
  • Keith Mitchell, Founder and CTO (own business) and Technical Director for GOV.UK App and AI, Government Digital Service
  • Helen Parkinson, Head of knowledge management at European Bioinformatics Institute
  • Tomas Sanchez Lopez, Director of Technology and Data Integration at NHS England
  • Piers Stobbs, Vice President of Science at Deliveroo and member of Royal Statistical Society Data Science & AI Committee
  • Susheel Varma. Head of AI & Data Science, Information Commissioner’s Office
  • Dr Sarah Wilkinson. Former CEO, NHS Digital
  • Vishaal Virani, Head of Health at YouTube UK & Ireland and founder of Doctorpreneurs community

Primary Care Working Group

Advises on the design and implementation of the study protocol across the UK, particularly in relation to recruitment in primary care and the feedback of clinical data.

  • Professor Andrew Carson-Stevens PhD MRCGP. Wales Primary Care Research Specialty Lead at Health and Care Research Wales; Patient Safety Research Leader at the Wales Centre for Primary and Emergency Care Research (PRIME Centre Wales); Clinical Reader of Patient Safety and Quality Improvement at Cardiff University School of Medicine; Practising GP
  • Dr Nigel Hart, Clinical Professor, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast
  • Dr Jude Hayward. GPwSI in Genetics, Yorkshire Regional Genetics Service; Primary Care Adviser to Health Education England Genomics Education Programme; RCGP Joint Clinical Champion in Genomics Medicine; Practising GP
  • Rashmi Kumar. Public member
  • Dr Laura McQuillan, GP; Federation GP Research Lead
  • Dr Nadeem Qureshi, Clinical Professor in Primary Care Division of Primary Care School of Medicine (SoM) University of Nottingham; Co-Director, Primary Care Stratified Medicine Group; Training lead (Nottingham) NIHR School of Primary Care Research; Deputy lead (Nottingham) NIHR School of Primary Care Research
  • Dr Imran Rafi. GP; Reader Primary Care and Genomics, St George’s University of London; Joint RCGP and AoRMC Clinical Champion in Genomics
  • Dr Brian Nicholson. Practising GP; Macmillan GP Facilitator – Oxfordshire; Affiliate Investigator – KPWHRI; Associate Editor – Family Practice
  • Dr Samuel Seidu. Head of Research for Primary Care Diabetes Europe (PCDE); Chair of the PCDE Study Group of European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD); faculty member of the Primary Care Academy of Diabetes Specialists in the UK; board member of the Primary Care Diabetes Society of UK; Clinical Lead and mentor for Diabetes in Leicester City and practising GP; lead undergraduate tutor and GP trainer 
  • Professor Fiona Walter. Director of the Wolfson Institute of Population Health and Professor of Primary Care Cancer Research at Queen Mary University of London; Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at University of Cambridge
  • Dr Michelle Watts.  Senior Medical Adviser, Primary Care Directorate, Scottish Government

Key documents

Governance Manual

VersionFersiwn 4 | 1 August 2024 | PDF: 540 KB

Ethics and Governance Framework

VersionFersiwn 2 | April 2021 | PDF: 514 KB

‘I wouldn’t be here without the NHS – I wanted to give something back’

Joanne Foden speaks about the cancer treatment that saved her life – and led to her joining Our Future Health three decades later.