Our research mission

Our Future Health aims to be the UK’s largest ever health research programme. It is designed to help people live healthier lives for longer through the discovery and testing of more effective approaches to prevention, earlier detection, and treatment of diseases.

Delivering better health outcomes

Despite advances in healthcare and medicine, large numbers of people in the UK still spend many years of their later life in poor health because of common diseases and health conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes and stroke.

Our Future Health will help health researchers to tackle this growing burden of disease. With our data, they will be able to develop new ways to detect diseases at an earlier stage, and even prevent them from occurring in the first place.

More about our research mission

  • Why Our Future Health is important

    Our Future Health is designed to help researchers tackle the growing burden of disease in the UK. Research suggests that currently, 54% of people aged 65 or older live with two or more serious health conditions, like cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes and stroke. By 2035, that figure is projected to rise to 68%.

  • How Our Future Health works

    People taking part are asked to provide information about their health and lifestyles and a small sample of their blood.  

  • Why diversity is essential to our mission

    Our Future Health is committed to building a resource that truly reflects the UK population, so that we can identify differences in how diseases begin and progress in people from different backgrounds. 

  • How the public is shaping the programme

    Millions of people will join Our Future Health, to help future generations live healthier lives for longer. So, we believe it is crucial that we include the views of the public in the development of the programme.

Video

Our research mission – explained

See how we’ll help researchers prevent, detect and treat diseases.

Download programme documents

Our Future Health Protocol

Version 5.0 | October 2023 | PDF: 4 MB

Our ethics and governance framework

Version 2.0 | April 2021 | 514kb

Become a volunteer

Help future generations live healthier lives for longer
Learn more about taking part

Are you a researcher?

Our dedicated page explains everything you need to know about how you can work with us
Find out more

“I joined Our Future Health to give back for all the care I received.”

Joanne Foden speaks about the cancer treatment that saved her life – and led to her volunteering for Our Future Health.

Read Joanne’s story