Our Organisation

Find out about our organisation's partnerships, history, funding and more.

Generation Scotland is a collaboration between the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Grampian, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside and Public Health Scotland.

Our team is currently based at the University of Edinburgh within the Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine, MRC Institute of Genetics and Cancer, Centre for Medical Informatics and the Usher Institute.

Partnership Organisations

We partner with various organisations to help us carry out our research and expand our impact throughout Scotland and beyond.

The following partners help facilitate data linkage for our study:

The following partners help us to spread awareness of Generation Scotland and what we do:

Collaborating Studies

We collaborate with various other health studies to share best practice, expertise and assist one another with data access and linkage. These studies include:

International Research Consortia

We take part in other studies in the UK and around the world, such as:

  • Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC)
  • Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE)
  • CONVALESCENCE Study (Long-Covid study)
  • Covid Global Mental Health Consortium (CGMHC)
  • Covidment
  • Psychiatric Genetics Consortium (PGC)

Youth Engagement Partners


While our first volunteers joined in 2006, did you know our history goes back to 1999?

Our Timeline

See the history of how we began and learn about our important achievements.

Please click the link below to download a timeline accessible for screen readers

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Generation Scotland Timeline (998.82 KB / PDF)
 
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Please contact genscot@ed.ac.uk for a screen readable version
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Please contact genscot@ed.ac.uk for a screen readable version
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Please contact genscot@ed.ac.uk for a screen readable version

Generation Scotland is currently supported by the Wellcome Trust. We have also received core support from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates and the Scottish Funding Council.


From scientists to data specialists, meet the team who work as part of Generation Scotland.

 

Professor Cathie Sudlow - Principal Investigator 
 

Professor Cathie Sudlow is a neurologist and clinical epidemiologist based at the University of Edinburgh and the Director of Generation Scotland. She is also Chief Scientist and Deputy Director of Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), the UK’s national institute for health data science, and is Director of the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre at HDR UK.

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Professor David Porteous - Co-Principal Investigator 
 

Professor David Porteous is a recently retired geneticist and medical researcher who set up and led Generation Scotland from the start.  He continues in an advisory role, and is a fully signed up volunteer for Generation Scotland.

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Professor Andrew McIntosh - Co-Principal Investigator  
 

Andrew McIntosh is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Division of Psychiatry, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences. He leads the Generation Scotland Expert Working Group for Psychiatric Disorders and co-chairs the Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC).

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Professor Riccardo Marioni - Co-Principal Investigator 
 

Riccardo is a co-investigator of GS and Professor of Molecular Epidemiology of Ageing. His group links information from DNA samples and blood markers to better understand the biology that underlies disease and to improve risk prediction.

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Professor Caroline Hayward - Co-Principal Investigator 
 

Professor Caroline Hayward was PI of the MRC research programme "Quantitative Traits in Health and Disease" before retiring in 2023. She has worked with genetic and health-related data from the Generation Scotland project for over 10 years. She has a particular interest in kidney-related diseases but has studied many other clinically important traits.

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Professor Heather Whalley - Chief Scientist  
 

Heather is Professor of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. She has an interest in linking neuroimaging data with genetic and environmental risk factors and clinical phenotypes, across and between disorders, to provide a more integrated and mechanistic understanding of mental illness. She has a particular interest in adolescent mental health, links between physical and mental health, the use of AI approaches in psychiatric/neuroimaging research, and integrating neuroimaging data with linked healthcare data. 

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Archie Campbell - Chief Technology Officer  
 

I have been working for Generation Scotland since 2007 in various IT and management roles.

I am now in charge of technology and looking after the extensive datasets, and I co-manage the team with Robin Flaig.

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Robin Flaig - Chief Operations Officer 
 

I am Chief Operations Officer, overseeing Generation Scotland’s administration, access, recruitment, finance, HR, communications and engagement.

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Anne Richmond - Bioinformatics Analyst
 

I am a bioinformatics analyst working in both data management and analysis in Generation Scotland. My primary roles involve managing the cohort's large omics resources for other researchers and contributing to analyses for larger consortia. 

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Liz Kirby - Research Support Officer
 

I am the Research Support Officer for Generation Scotland and the Loneliness in the Digital World project. I help with participant communication and public engagement as well as supporting the team with administration and finance tracking. I also help with ethics submissions and manage the researcher access system.

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Alex Wood - Data Analyst / Developer 
 

I’m a web developer and analyst within the team.  I’m responsible for building and updating the online portal our volunteers interact with, and looking after the data we manage within the study.

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Sarah Robertson - Youth Engagement Lead
 

I have over 25 years’ experience in public engagement and partnership working in the field of Community Learning and Development and Youth Work. I have led on national programmes around health, equalities, participation approaches, participatory democracy, active citizenship, training development and delivery to NHS Scotland, Public Health, Scottish Government, Scottish Fire Service and Police Scotland on rights based approaches.

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Rosie Tatham - Science Communications and Administrative Assistant
 

My role involves communicating with our volunteers, creating research summaries, handling publications and managing and creating content for our social media. Primarily, to help with recruitment of Next Generation Scotland. Part of my role also involves working on a STRADL-based fMRI research project for Generation Scotland.

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Zhuoni Xiao - Research Fellow
 

I am a postdoctoral researcher working on the 'Loneliness in the Digital World' project, utilising the Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) approach. My role involves designing the study, recruiting participants, and collecting and analysing data. I am particularly interested in exploring the impact of early adversity on lifelong mental health.

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Fiona Clark - Research & Communications Manager

I am the Generation Scotland Research and Communications Manager. I support the team, particularly dealing with finance and social media,  since joining the team in 2023.

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Fiona Clark Close Up