03 Oct 2022

Dr Philippe Rocca-Serra appointed Senior Director for FAIR Data Collaborations at AstraZeneca

Dr Rocca-Serra will share time between the Centre’s Data Readiness Group and the AstraZeneca R&D Data Office, continuing work on collaborative and pre-competitive initiatives, and on enterprise-specific activities to enable data reuse, reproducibility and repurposing

Dr Philippe Rocca Serra. Credit: FAIRplus

The Centre’s Data Readiness Group, headed by Professor Susanna-Assunta Sansone and assisted by Associate Member of Faculty Dr. Philippe Rocca-Serra, is at the core of the international community movement for reusable and reproducible research, and good data management practices. These topics have been propelled at global level by the widely endorsed FAIR Principles, of which Prof. Sansone and Dr. Rocca-Serra are two of the authors. The concept of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable data is also pervasive in major biopharmas, which value their data as an essential corporate asset and consider FAIR as a key driver of their digital transformation. Among the Group’s activities is their contribution to and leadership of a number of international public-private funded projects and community activities set to deliver FAIR in practice.

From this month, Dr. Rocca-Serra will share his time between the Data Readiness Group and AstraZeneca, a global science-led bio-pharmaceutical company, in the role of Senior Director of FAIR Collaborations. He will continue to work as the Group’s Principal Investigator on a number of open research and infrastructure projects, and FAIR-enabling activities in the pre-competitive space.

“I am excited by this unique opportunity of a joint employment, aimed at driving impact from open, community FAIR data activities to address real world data problems, working with AstraZeneca researchers and data experts colleagues”

says Dr. Rocca-Serra, who is also a member of the Centre’s Academic Steering Group.

Dr. Rocca-Serra joins the Leadership Team of the AstraZeneca Data Office in R&D, which works on data governance, FAIR data, and strategy. AstraZeneca relies on Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital as a foundational capability, to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines. The Data Office is part of the AstraZeneca Data Science & AI unit, which works to ensure that data and analytics have the potential to transform the business. The true value of scientific data can only be realized if data is FAIR.

“Dr. Rocca-Serra will build internal collaborations, contribute to and bring external community best practices inside AstraZeneca, also leveraging on the expertise and activities of the Data Readiness Group”

Dr. Peder Blomgren, Vice President and Head of the AstraZeneca Data Office, R&D.

Dr. Rocca-Serra will be responsible for providing leadership of FAIR Collaborations globally for AstraZeneca R&D, in support of business strategy and goals, contributing to strategy, vision and objectives for the function. He will also lead the internal FAIR Framework to enable AstraZeneca to embed best practice into the business across R&D in a consistent and fit-for-purpose way.

“I am delighted to see Dr. Rocca-Serra’s upward professional trajectory and in a manner that will benefit both organizations and bring mutual value; connecting data practitioners in the public and private sectors is vital to accelerate our FAIR data journey”

Says Professor Sansone, who is also the Centre’s Associate Director, and the University-wide Academic Lead for Research Culture (Practice).

To build FAIR capacity in AstraZeneca, Dr. Rocca-Serra will leverage the FAIR Cookbook, an open collaborative resource of hands-on recipes contributed by data professionals in academia and industry in the Life Sciences. The FAIR Cookbook is a flagship product of the IMI FAIRplus project, part of a task led by Dr. Rocca-Serra and Prof. Sansone.