Aarhus becomes center of new international pioneer center: Medical data research for DKK 250 million

This post is also available in: Danish

In the future, there must be greater focus on collecting data – large amounts of data – from both Danish and foreign biobanks to learn more about correlations, risk factors and consequences of different types of diseases.

This is precisely the purpose of a brand new pioneer center that will be headquartered at Aarhus University in partnership with the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oxford. The Pioneer Center for SMARTbiomed (Statistical and computational Methods for Advanced Research to Transform Biomedicine) will develop new methods for biomedical data analysis and develop platforms and software for biomedical research.

Read also: Every faculty at Aarhus University gets its own innovator – TechSavvy

“Gathering large amounts of biomedical data and using it to improve disease treatment requires medical, statistical and computational approaches. SMARTbiomed will bring together a critical mass of international researchers who know how to ask the right questions, who understand the complexity of the data, and who can translate it all into advanced treatments for conditions that are prevalent in society,” said Naomi Wray, Professor at the University of Oxford and newly appointed head of the new pioneering center, in a press release.

International collaboration in Aarhus

The Pioneer Center for SMARTbiomed will be headquartered at Aarhus University, and we are delighted that the major international project has been successfully anchored in Aarhus.

“Collecting and analyzing health data on this scale is essential to our understanding and treatment of disease. Therefore, international health research is taking a big step forward with the establishment of this new pioneer center. I am both pleased and proud that Aarhus University will host this unique collaboration between three strong international universities,” says Rector of Aarhus University, Brian Bech Nielsen, in the press release.

The Pioneer Center is a national initiative established by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. The establishment is financed through financial support from the Danish National Research Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation, the Lundbeck Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Villum Foundation. The project will run until 2036.