World’s largest cohort study now open to researchers

News – 22 January 2025
Our Future Health, the world’s largest consented cohort study of its kind, is now open to researchers, as published in Nature Medicine

The goal of the Our Future Health programme is to help people live longer, healthier lives through the discovery and testing of more effective approaches to prevention, earlier detection, and treatment of diseases. It is run by a charity that is supported by the UK government, life sciences industry and medical charities.

Our Future Health has already recruited more than 2 million consented participants, over a million of these already with bio-banked blood samples. The aim is to recruit up to 5 million participants reflective of the UK adult population to create a unique resource that will catalyse aetiological and translational disease research.

The unrivalled large size of Our Future Heath will enable precision prospective studies of common and rarer diseases: how they develop, how clinicians can intervene, and how patients can be treated. The access to biological samples in this large prospective cohort will facilitate translational discoveries by enabling specific deep phenotyping of selected populations.

The programme will enable selection of participants based on geography, demographics, genetics, phenotype, and disease risk to be invited to consent to additional research studies and trials, catalysing translational research.

Dr Raghib Ali, Chief Executive and Chief Investigator of Our Future Health, said:

“Healthcare systems across the world are facing an increasing burden of chronic diseases due to ageing populations with most conditions currently only being detected at an advanced stage when they are much more difficult to treat effectively. Our Future Health has a very large, diverse cohort which can help address these public health challenges and we’re delighted to be making excellent progress, with researchers already utilising this important resource.”

Jennifer Quint, Professor of Respiratory Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at Imperial College London and a Research Ambassador for Our Future Health, said:

“Our Future Health has asked volunteers some very useful and detailed questions on diet, exercise, and their environment in the questionnaire. We can look at people’s de-identified medical records to see exactly when they’re diagnosed with a disease, and what happens afterwards. And we can combine this knowledge to try to understand what could have caused the disease.

“What makes Our Future Health unique is that it will give us an understanding, at a mass general population level, of people’s health.”

Our Future Heath builds on and complements the wider genetic and disease research infrastructure of the UK, particularly the major successes of UK Biobank, Genomics England, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Be Part of Research and BioResource.

Our Future Health is open to researchers now. For more details and to make an application to its independent Access Board, please visit https://research.ourfuturehealth.org.uk/

Our Future Health is an ambitious collaboration between the public sector, life sciences companies and leading UK health charities including: Action Against Age-related Macular Degeneration,  Alzheimer’s Research UKAlzheimer’s SocietyAsthma + Lung UKBlood Cancer UKBrain Tumour Research, Breast Cancer NowBritish Heart FoundationCancer Research UK, Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, DEBRADiabetes UK, Fight for Sight, Glaucoma UKKidney Research UK, LifeArcMacular Society, Pancreatic Cancer UKParkinson’s UKProstate Cancer Research, Prostate Cancer UKRoyal Osteoporosis Society, Stroke Association, and Versus Arthritis. Our Future Health was set up with funding from the UKRI Accelerating Detection of Disease Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK.

Ends

Full article published in Nature Medicine.

Media contact: lucy.austin@ourfuturehealth.org.uk

Notes to editors

For more details and to make an application to its independent Access Board, please visit https://research.ourfuturehealth.org.uk/

About Our Future Health   
Our Future Health is a collaboration between the public, charity and private sectors to build the UK’s largest health research programme – bringing people together to develop new ways to prevent, detect and treat diseases.   

Our Future Health is committed to the highest standards, policies and processes that protect participants’ confidentiality, whilst maximising the opportunity to help researchers to tackle serious diseases. Volunteers’ data is de-identified and held securely in trusted research environments that meet strict security criteria. Our Future Health data and samples is only available to registered researchers conducting health research for the public good and is strictly controlled through an access process. All researchers will be held to the same standards.   

Our Future Health is a member of the UK Health Data Research Alliance, the independent alliance of leading healthcare and research organisations establishing best practice for the ethical use of UK health data for research at scale.   
   
Our Future Health is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (number 12212468) and a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 1189681) and OSCR, Scottish Charity Regulator (charity number SC050917).   

About Innovate UK
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is the UK’s innovation agency. It works to create a better future by inspiring, involving and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations. Its mission is to help companies to grow through their development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive and easy to navigate.