UCL researchers have received £5.8m in funding from UKRI to develop cutting-edge data services, that will help to better understand the geographic disparities, barriers to opportunity and the circumstances of vulnerable populations across the UK and beyond.
The bulk of the funding, £5.2m, is to establish the Smart Data Research UK (SDR UK) Geographic Data Service (GeoDS). Hosted by the UCL Department of Geography and the UCL Social Data Institute, GeoDS will acquire, research, curate and deliver geographically-enabled smart data derived from human interactions with digital devices, such as mobile phone apps including shopping, navigation systems and social media. This will help generate new insights into more equitable economic growth and an environmentally sustainable future.
Led by Professor Paul Longley (UCL Geography) and Professor Alex Singleton of the University of Liverpool, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, GeoDS will build on the foundations of the existing Consumer Data Research Centre, to develop partnerships with data providers and coordinate a national master's dissertation programme that will engage a new generation of smart data researchers.
Professor Longley said: "There is a wealth of untapped data, collected by a wide range of organisations, that can supplement and enrich existing statistical and administrative sources. We anticipate that researchers across the country will use our new service to access the best data, enabling the best research and helping to solve the economic and productivity challenges facing the nation."
As part of a previous ESRC grant the team created the Consumer Data Research Centre, which provided data products, classification approaches, and visualisation tools that unlock the power of new forms of data for social science research. The range of benefits from this past research has included analysis of the ethnic-variant impacts of COVID-19 for health agencies, improved urban transport planning, widened participation in sports scheme investments, and enhanced use of mapping in secondary school education.
GeoDS will sustain this innovation by making available data collected by previously unavailable datasets from the likes of open banking data providers to data generated by interacting with services online. This will offer important insights into regional disparities, access to opportunity and the overall lives and circumstances of vulnerable populations.
To drive the uptake and build capacity in the use of the GeoDS, Dr Igor Tkalec (UCL Social Data Institute) has secured an additional £600,000 to lead a new national training programme for researchers titled 'Data Storytelling for Digital Research Infrastructure', based on the extensive expertise that the UCL Social Data Institute has developed in this area.
Founding Director of the UCL Social Data Institute, Professor James Cheshire (UCL Geography) said: "It has been my objective to position UCL as a trailblazer in the creation and use of cutting-edge datasets in the social sciences. Working with our partner institutions, these investments present a tremendous opportunity to make us a national leader in this space."
The new effort is part of a broader £22 million investment by UK Research and Innovation's Smart Data Research UK programme into a range of new data services that will enable researchers across the UK to better access new forms of smart data. These services also include the first national smart data donation service and a new satellite imagery service.
Joe Cuddeford, Director of Smart Data Research UK, said: "These new data services are a major step forward in our mission to unlock the power of smart data for society. By providing researchers with safe access to new data, methods and tools we are empowering them to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing the UK today, from boosting productivity to improving health outcomes."
