Cardiff data scientist made BioFAIR Fellow to support step-change in life sciences data
15 October 2025
Dr Robert Andrews, co-Director of Systems Immunity Research Institute and Senior Lecturer and member of the management board of the Digital Transformation Innovation Institute, has been awarded a BioFAIR Fellowship.
The Fellowship is designed to build a vibrant and skilled community of researchers and professionals who will lead the way in embedding FAIR data and workflow practices across the life sciences.
BioFAIR is dedicated to advancing life science research by improving the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (FAIR) of research data. The programme will enable more efficient and transparent research practices that accelerate discoveries and improve health outcomes. The Fellowship brings together a diverse cohort of individuals from across academia and the wider UK life sciences ecosystem, equipping them with the training, networks, and resources to drive sustainable cultural change around data.
This is a step change in how people are supported to share and reuse their data and software. Fellows support and coach at the grassroots levels, enabling researchers and Research technical professionals to perform and support Open and FAIR research.
The Fellowship is the first stage in building the “people comms”: A pooled national community of professional data stewards and Research Software Engineers will support researchers, bioinformaticians, institutional /project developers and data stewards with their Data and Software Management Planning, data quality and data analytics, AI-readiness and open science practice.
Dr Claire Spreadbury, GW4 Health and Wellbeing Manager, said: "We are delighted that Dr Andrews has joined the inaugural cohort of the BioFAIR Fellows alongside fellow GW4 researcher, Dr Craig Willis of the University of Exeter. Linking into the UK-wide Fellowship, BioFAIR will support our efforts to share and reuse data and workflow across our established GW4 life science communities and research networks into the national network."
The BioFAIR Fellowship is a flagship initiative of the UKRI-funded BioFAIR programme, supporting the UK life sciences community in transforming how data is shared, stewarded, and reused.
