HxC: Healthier Science through Collaboration

Funded by the Medical Research Council, and co-delivered by the University of Edinburgh, Health Data Research UK, and the UK Dementia Research Institute.

Vision

The project aims to amplify the voices of interdisciplinary scientists from diverse backgrounds, with the goal of fostering positive and sustainable culture change by embedding good practices within research teams and organisations.

It aims to introduce a step-change to UK biomedical data science research culture.

Vision Statement:

1. HxC will give voice to diverse perspectives, as these will help to bring appropriate resolution to any conflict. 
2. It will adapt its approach when appropriate, by taking advantage of diverse perspectives from patient, public and industry stakeholders. 
3. The project will always endeavour to foster an inclusive and diverse research environment that values different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. 
4. It will develop interdisciplinary research culture guidelines and explicitly test the draft guidelines against its own approach to delivery.
5. It will work across the landscape to integrate good research culture practices into ongoing operations across research teams and organisations, ensuring sustainability beyond funding, and maximising impact. 

Core values

Value Statement:

1. An inclusive and diverse research environment is one that values and celebrates different perspectives, skill sets, backgrounds, and experiences at each stage, from recruitment to next post. 
2. Good science is achieved when ideas, expertise and knowledge are exchanged without precondition, and when no question or idea is off limits. 
3. Respect and trust are gained when background intellectual property (scientific question, expertise, methods) is recognised and valued, from project inception onwards, as pivotal new ideas emerge and contributions evolve. 
4. Training and personal development drive a virtual cycle that improves scientists and their science. This requires dedicated time and planning focused on both individuals and teams.

Inna Yaneva-Toraman, University of Edinburgh (Project Manager)

Inna is an economic anthropologist and interdisciplinary researcher specialising in the global political economy of agri-foods and fisheries. Prior to joining the HxC team, she held two postdoctoral fellowships and served as a lecturer in anthropology and climate change. Her research examines sustainable rural livelihoods, climate resilience, and environmental justice across the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. With over a decade of experience leading and contributing to both small and large, mono- and interdisciplinary projects, she brings a wealth of expertise to her work. Recently, Inna has explored gamification and game design as innovative tools for engaging communities, facilitating knowledge exchange, and promoting solution-oriented decision-making for policy development.

Jane Hillston, University of Edinburgh

Prof Hillston is Chair of Quantitative Modelling and former Head of School (2018–2023) in the School of Informatics. She is Dean of Research Culture and REF in the College of Science and Engineering and was seconded as Deputy Vice Principal Research 2020–2022, and in that role led development of the University of Edinburgh’s first Research Cultures Action Plan. She has extensive experience of working in EDI and she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2023 for services to computer science and women in science. Her research focuses on computational modelling of dynamic systems which has involved collaboration across a range of application domains, including systems biology.

Ava Khamseh, University of Edinburgh

Ava Khamseh is a Lecturer in Biomedical AI at the University of Edinburgh, joint at the School of Informatics and the Institute of Genetics and Cancer. Her cross-disciplinary research focuses on developing and applying causal machine learning methods in genomics and health informatics. She is also Deputy Director of the CDT in AI for Biomedical Innovation, and has been part of the X-Net committee, an MRC funded national network to help identify obstacles to cross-disciplinary research careers.

Hollydawn Murray, HDR UK

Dr Hollydawn Murray (Head of Open Science, Research Culture, & Impact) works closely with the health data science community to support, shape, develop and implement HDR UK’s progressive open science, team science, and impact ambitions – and provides an advisory service on all matters pertaining to research culture. She is a longstanding open research advocate and has been involved in several professional organizations, working groups, and boards dedicated to making science more transparent and ensuring all outputs are valued. Hollydawn holds a PhD in Ocean Science from the National University of Ireland Galway, and later upskilled as a data scientist.

Chris Ponting, University of Edinburgh

Professor Chris Ponting was appointed as Chair of Medical Bioinformatics, Institute of Genetics and Cancer at the University of Edinburgh in 2016. He is an Investigator at the MRC Human Genetics Unit, where his current research projects include the DecodeME genetics study. Prior to 2016, Chris spent most of his career at the University of Oxford, where he provided leadership in international genome sequencing projects and co-developed an important approach to comprehensively sequence the RNA and DNA from the same single cell. Chris has interdisciplinary expertise across (bio)physics, noncoding RNAs, evolution, gene regulation, and the biology of single cells. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation.

Rosie Wakeham, HDR UK

As Head of Training at HDR UK, Rosie is playing a key part in developing HDR UK's role in providing training and learning opportunities to nurture the skills of new and existing health data scientists. This is of fundamental importance to HDR UK which, as the national institute for health data science, wants to ensure that talented people from every background and all four home nations can thrive in this rapidly-advancing field.

Amonida Zadissa, UK DRI

Amonida Zadissa is the Associate Director of Informatics at the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), where she collaborates with researchers to implement data strategies that enhance reproducibility and drive high-impact science. Her work focuses on ensuring research outputs are accessible to the broader scientific community. Amonida is a strong advocate for transparency and inclusivity in research, actively contributing to initiatives that promote data equity, skills exchange, standardisation, and community-driven innovation.