I am honoured to be appointed as ELIXIR director and look forward to joining the vibrant community that has been built up during Niklas Blomberg’s leadership. It is an exciting time to be joining European-wide initiatives in molecular data, software and services, with the developments of the European Health Data Space, and of course the fast-moving opportunities of artificial intelligence
Professor Tim Hubbard, Professor of Bioinformatics
01 December 2023
Professor Tim Hubbard announced as the next ELIXIR Director
Professor Tim Hubbard will be responsible for leading ELIXIR’s technical and scientific programmes
Congratulations to Professor Tim Hubbard who has been announced as the next Director of ELIXIR, the European life sciences data infrastructure. He will be taking up the position in March 2024 but will retain affiliation with King's to continue research activities.
Tim is a Professor of Bioinformatics in the School of Basic & Medical Biosciences and former Head of the Department of Medical & Molecular Genetics, as well as a Senior Advisor at Genomics England and Associate Director of Health Data Research UK (HDR UK).
Since 2013, Tim has been seconded to Genomics England, the company set up by the UK Department of Health to execute the 100,000 genomes project. Genomics England has enabled the use of whole genome sequence analysis in normal patient care, closely linked to the establishment of NHS Genome Medicine Centres, now Genome Laboratory Hubs, one of which is based at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. In 2017 Tim led for KCL in the London wide bid to be a site of Health Data Research UK (HDRUK), the national virtual institute set up to unite UK's health and care data. He went on to lead Trusted Research Environment (TRE) policy work at HDR UK, building on work at Genomics England where data is analysed in place to protect patient privacy and provide transparency. The TRE approach has recently been adopted as policy by NHS England, with London now building a one of the regional Secure Data Environment to enable health data research.
Founded in 2013, ELIXIR is a European life science data infrastructure, bringing together experts and resources across Europe to enable life science researchers across the world to access and analyse life science data. ELIXIR enables researchers to access and analyse life science data, to improve the value and impact of life science research on public health, the environment and the economy. It co-ordinates the European Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) project, which builds on the outputs of the Beyond One Million Genomes (B1MG) project to realise the 1+ Million Genomes Initiative (1+MG) in alignment with the European Health Data Space (EHDS).
Through this role Professor Hubbard will be responsible for leading ELIXIR’s technical and scientific programmes, leading the ELIXIR nodes across Europe and bringing together scientists from over 250 research institutes.
We are very proud of Professor Tim Hubbard’s appointment as the next Director of ELIXIR, taking up a leading role in ELIXIR’s technical and scientific programmes. Tim has been a valued colleague to many in the School of Basic & Medical Biosciences and will bring a breadth of knowledge and experience to this role. We wish Tim all the best for this new appointment and look forward to his continued work and affiliation with King’s College London.
Professor Mathias Gautel, Head of School, Basic & Medical Biosciences, King’s College London
It has been a privilege to lead ELIXIR and I am incredibly pleased to hand over to Tim, who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in genomics and health, open data, and in running large international collaborations.
Niklas Blomberg, outgoing ELIXIR Director
More information on the mission and collaboration of ELIXIR can be found on the ELIXIR website.
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Professor of Bioinformatics