This EMBL-Wellcome Genome Campus Conference on “Big Data in Biology & Health” will alternate between Heidelberg and Hinxton, to address the opportunities and challenges of “big data” analytics, advance basic research and explore translational opportunities. This timely interdisciplinary meeting aims to enable the European research community to participate in and help drive the future development of “big data” research, as well as raise further awareness for this new and relevant research direction in the life sciences.