Denmark and SUND Are ‘Rearming’ Digitally for the Future of Health Research
A new supercomputer, important collaborations on personalised medicine and a national strategy for digital research infrastructure. In recent months, the amount of digital initiatives within health research in Denmark has increased. Get an overview of the most important events and insight into SUND’s role in this area.
‘Researchers at the Danish universities must have access to a digital infrastructure that makes it possible to conduct world-class research and education’. This is the vision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science’s strategy for national collaboration on digital research infrastructure, which was released in December 2018. It is one of the first of a number of recent initiatives that aim to support health research digitally.
The strategy addresses the intense development in technology within the health area which in recent years has created new opportunities for collecting, analysing and exploiting large amounts of data within health research for personalised treatment. The strategy thus focusses on the fact that this development requires a supporting infrastructure that can ensure optimal and safe processing of these large amounts of data.
Another important initiative in the area is the national strategy for personalised medicine, which among other things focusses on establishing a joint structure and stronger collaboration in the healthcare system and research. A follow-up on the strategy is the infrastructure for Personalised Medicine in Eastern Denmark, which is a collaboration between the Capital Region of Denmark, Region Zealand, the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen. The collaboration will promote the development of personalised medicine and better treatment. Read more about the deliberations and initiatives of the collaboration.
SUND’s Digital Mark
SUND has also launched a series of new digital initiatives. In December 2018, we learned that the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen are investing in a new supercomputer, Computerome 2.0. The supercomputer has great storage and calculation capacity, high operational reliability and the highest level security for processing sensitive data. Among other things, it enables researchers to plan and participate in large and complex research projects that require an overview of enormous amounts of data.
Every day SUND researchers work on digital tools, data and methods that increase our knowledge of disease mechanisms and their biology. This generates new knowledge and a better basis for developing personalised treatment in the long term.
Learn more in this film on how SUND applies health data in its research. Professor Søren Brunak provides an outline and explains the vital importance of big data to research, while Professor Guillermo Montoya focusses on how digital tools open up brand new perspectives in his basic research.