This interactive webinar and workshop will be co-hosted with MESSAGE (Medical Science Sex and Gender Equity), a UK initiative working to improve the integration of sex and gender considerations across biomedical, health and care research. We’ll explore why sex and gender matter in health research and data science, with a particular focus on secondary data analysis and how these considerations can be more effectively embedded across the research life cycle.

The session will combine short presentations with practical examples, interactive polls and small-group discussion. You’ll be introduced to MESSAGE’s policy framework and learning resources, explore what integrating sex and gender can look like in practice, and have the opportunity to reflect on a project or area of your own work. We’ll finish by sharing ideas, questions and priorities for what guidance, resources or support would be most useful in the future.

About MESSAGE

The MESSAGE (Medical Science Sex and Gender Equity) project aims to improve the integration of sex and gender considerations across data collection, analysis and reporting in biomedical, health and care research in the UK.

This initiative is bringing together stakeholders from across the UK to co-design a sex and gender policy framework for funding and regulatory organisations and supporting policy implementation across the UK research sector

About the DSxHE Data Diversity Theme Partner Events

The DSxHE Data Diversity Theme are co-hosting a series of events to showcase and share existing work, tools, and resources developed with partners across the health research sector. The aim of the events is to

• raise awareness of what is already available

• create space to share learning about how these resources were developed

• help identify priorities for future action.

About the Data Diversity Theme

Health datasets often don’t reflect the diversity of the populations they aim to serve. This lack of representativeness can limit the generalisability of research, reduce the effectiveness of new tools, and risk widening health inequalities.

A partnership between Data Science for Health Equity and Cancer Research UK, the Data Diversity Theme brings together researchers, clinicians, funders, and patient advocates to co-create practical ways of embedding diversity across the research lifecycle. It is co-led by Dr Toral Gathani (University of Oxford) and Dr Brieuc Lehmann (UCL).