The core mission of SMARTbiomed is development of statistical and computational methods focussing on causal inference (theme lead: Erin Gabriel), risk prediction (theme lead: Bjarni Vilhjálmsson) and machine learning (theme lead: Chris Holmes). This broad focus is ring-fenced by questions relevant to common complex diseases/disorders (specifically cardiometabolic, brain and reproductive traits), and ring-fenced by big data types that are newly emerging for exploitation (‘omics, longitudinal – usually electronic health record or biobank – and clinical imaging data). Bridging omics and clinical big data within the Centre acknowledges a vision that translation of research advances from omics-based research will be facilitated by close integration with, and knowledge of, clinical data. Training the next generation of researchers is a key component of the core mission.
The Pioneer Centre for Statistical and Computational Methods for Advanced Research to Transform Biomedicine (SMARTbiomed) is anchored at Aarhus University. The Centre was established in June 2024 and will run until 2036.