The National Institute of Health Data Science at Peking University (NIHDS-PKU) was officially established on April 28th, 2018, jointly by Peking University and China Health Information and Big Data Association, under the initiative of the National Health Commission. Benefitting from China’s ample health data resources and comprehensive academic collaborations in Peking University and beyond, the NIHDS-PKU aims to build a world-class institute and practice base devoted in research, application and innovation in various aspects of health data science, including strategic plan in the health sector, ethics and laws, data resources management, core technologies, platform construction, demonstration applications among others. The institute also serves as a national high-end think tank in health data science regulation in support the implementation of “Healthy China” policy.