UCL wins twice at ONS Research Excellence Awards

The ONS Research Excellence Awards recognise innovative and impactful research using secure data, and were announced during an online ceremony on Wednesday.

ECHILD wins Research Excellence Award 

The Educational and Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) team accepted the ONS Research Excellence Award for Secure Data Creation. ECHILD, a research database developed by a team led by Professor Katie Harron at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, integrates health, education, and social care data for 20 million children in England. 

 Dr Milagros Ruiz Nishiki, ECHILD Data Resource Manager, said “we’re delighted that the immense effort to make this valuable resource accessible by our UCL team, alongside our partners at the Department for Education and NHS England has been recognised with this award. We’re excited about the impactful research that ECHILD will enable in the future.” 

This comprehensive database, the first of its kind in England, provides critical insights for shaping early-years policy and improving services for children. 

Virus Watch wins People’s Choice Award 

Virus Watch, based at UCL’s Institute of Health Informatics received the People’s Choice Award, as well as a commendation for methodology from the judging panel.  

The COVID-19 research study is run in conjunction with the NHS and involves over 58,000 participants from England and Wales. The study has contributed to key policy changes, including the introduction of booster vaccines, and has been widely cited in research and international government documents.  

UCL Research Fellow Vincent Nguyen accepted the award on behalf of the study team, expressing gratitude to the participants and the multidisciplinary team that made the study possible. 

“A large multidisciplinary team of people within UCL, UCLH, the Clinical Research Network, and the Francis Crick Institute worked on this study over the last 4 years,” said Nguyen.  

“Our team included data scientists, epidemiologists, public health clinicians, psychologists, nurses, phlebotomists, laboratory scientists and physicians.” 

About the Awards 

The ONS Research Excellence Awards celebrate the best in research methodologies and data linking, bringing together researchers, data owners, and government representatives. This year’s winners were announced by Peter Benton, Deputy National Statistician & Interim Director General for Data Capability at ONS. 

These two awards highlight the Faculty of Population Health Sciences’ commitment to leveraging data for public good and advancing knowledge in public health. 

Links

• ECHILD
• UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
• Virus Watch
• UCL Institute of Health Informatics
• Professor Katie Harron's academic profile
• Dr Milagros A Ruiz' academic profile
• ONS Research Excellence Awards 2024

Image

• Members of the ECHILD team, credit: ECHILD