Harmony Meta September Seminar Series
We are looking forward to welcoming Dr. Bettina Moltrecht and Thomas Wood to introduce Harmony Meta, a groundbreaking platform developed over the past year to bridge the gap between disparate study catalogues and registers. While traditional data discovery relies on exact keyword matching, Harmony Meta utilizes Large Language Models and vector indexing to allow for semantic searching across 5.5 million variables.
Abstract: This session will demonstrate how researchers can now locate longitudinal data using approximate synonyms—for instance, a search for "dyslexia" will successfully retrieve variables related to "difficulty reading." The platform indexes nearly every major longitudinal study ever conducted in the UK, including the Millennium Cohort Study, the 1970 British Cohort Study, and Born in Bradford. The presenters will discuss the technical backend of converting millions of variables into vectors and the practical implications for harmonizing data across different cohorts to identify population mental health trends.
Try the Tool: https://harmonydata.ac.uk/search
Seminar Series Event : "Harmony Meta: Using AI to Unlock 5.5 Million Variables in UK Longitudinal Studies"
Date and Time: Thursday 24 September 2026, 15:00 – 16.00 (BST)
Location: Venue to be confirmed.
Attendance: Mandatory for all DRIVE-Health students; a calendar invitation has already been sent.
Registration: Alumni and wider King's College London research community all welcome - please email drive-health-cdt@kcl.ac.uk to let us know if you would like to attend.
Biographies
Dr. Bettina Moltrecht
Dr. Bettina Moltrecht is a mental health researcher based at University College London (UCL) and Anna Freud a UK-based mental health charity for children and families. Bettina combines a clinical, tech and research background, and has been co-leading the Harmony project with the aim to enhance population mental health research. Bettina is co-founder of UCL's Digital Mental Health Hub, and is co-investigator on various clinical trials to evaluate mental health interventions in the NHS.
Thomas Wood
Thomas Wood is the founder of Fast Data Science and the lead developer for the Harmony Meta backend. He holds a Master’s in Physics from Durham University and a Master’s in Computer Speech, Text and Internet Technology from the University of Cambridge. With over a decade of experience in machine learning and NLP, Thomas has consulted for the NHS, Tesco, and Boehringer Ingelheim. He also works as an expert witness and is working on NLP solutions for clinical trials, and generative AI solutions for legal question answering.
Note on Funding and Partners: Harmony Meta was funded by the ESRC and developed in collaboration with Population Research UK (PRUK), the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, DATAMIND UK, The Alan Turing Institute, and UK Research and Innovation.
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