On the road: Bristol
Researchers from across the southwest recently gathered in Bristol for the first Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) regional showcase.
For Smart Data Research UK’s Deputy Director, Sam McGregor, it was a welcome opportunity to return to her alma mater. It was also a chance to introduce our new family of data services.
Understanding smart data
Every click, purchase, and GPS ping generates ‘smart data’ – digital footprints that hold powerful insights into social and economic behaviour. From gaming habits to travel patterns, this data has great potential to help address real-world challenges but researchers often struggle to access and use it effectively. Our new family of data services is going to help us to radically change this situation. Through these services and our wider programme, we want to put UK researchers, policymakers, and the great British public in prime position to benefit from the wealth of data we are all generating every second, in the digital world.
ESRC’s commitment to digital innovation
At the recent Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) regional showcase in Bristol, the research community gathered to discuss the World of Work. The focus was on how ESRC’s data investments are supporting impactful research.
As ESRC celebrates its 60th year, Executive Chair Stian Westlake reaffirmed the council’s commitment to funding digital data research. Representatives from ADR UK and The Productivity Institute emphasised the growing demand for data-driven policymaking. They also highlighted the key tools, datasets and opportunities available for researchers to use.
As a former student of the University of the West of England Bristol, I was delighted to be back on campus to speak at the event. The venue was the Enterprise Park, a bustling hub of innovation. It’s testament to all the exciting science, research and innovative thinking taking place in this part of the country.
Meet our six data services
My visit coincided with Smart Data Research UK’s own announcement of two more smart data services, joining the four announced last October. All six data services are led by wonderful and distinguished teams that are building centres of excellence, focussed on enabling the use of smart data for public good.
Our job at Smart Data Research UK (SDR UK) is to set ourselves up for long-term success by establishing secure, effective and trusted infrastructures that support excellent and impactful research.
We also want to champion our collective work and join forces with others to take a system-wide approach to complex challenges, which will ensure smart data research can flourish in the UK.
Let me introduce the teams:
Imago, Data Service for Imagery
Led by the University of Liverpool, Imago focuses on data collected ‘from above’ – mostly from satellites, although they’ll also be doing some strategic exploration of aerial, UAV and LiDAR data sources. These data are underutilised by social scientists, in part because it’s notoriously challenging to extract valuable insights from these unstructured and unwieldy datasets without advanced computational skills and tools. Imago is here to change that, creating useable, ‘off-the-shelf’ data products that enable more researchers to use them.
Geographic Data Service
Based at UCL, this team builds on a decade of ESRC investment in the Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC). Their datasets cover everything from gambling habits and annual residential turnovers and property values to broadband speeds and neighbourhood liveability. These and other indicators will build towards composite research data products that power new research on productivity and prosperity.
Smart Data Donation Service
The Smart Data Donation Service (SDDS) is addressing a significant gap in understanding about our digital lives and the online worlds we inhabit. The service, based at the University of York, is leveraging GDPR rights, to empower citizens to download, understand and securely donate their data for research. The SDDS meets an urgent need for evidence-based policy around online safety and digital wellbeing. It will enable research into mental health, digital literacy, online community, addiction, discriminatory behaviour, and disinformation.
Healthy and Sustainable Places Data Service
This team is also building on ten years of work delivering a highly regarded data service as part of CDRC. Based at the University of Leeds, Healthy and Sustainable Places will be enabling access to a range of data from long-standing and new partners, including food retailers, transport providers, and consumer and trade organisations. They’ll be making available research-ready data products like the Priority Places for Food Index and Nutrient Profile Model Calculator.
Financial Data Service
Led by the University of Edinburgh in partnership with the Smart Data Foundry and EPCC, the team is opening up access to a range of micro and curated data from partners like Natwest, Virgin Money, and SAGE group. Products include aggregate statistics, demographic-tracking time series and other high-value data assets. The data holds huge potential to support cutting-edge economic research but hasn’t historically been readily available to the research community.
Smart Energy Data Service
A partnership between the Energy Systems Catapult, the University of Oxford, and others, including the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Hartree Centre, the Smart Energy Data Service is unlocking real-time insights into energy consumption and consumer behaviour. By making available live energy data from smart monitors and EV movement and aggregate smart meter data, this service will enable research on vital topics relating to energy efficiency and sustainability.
Audience questions
It was great to hear how interested and positive the crowd at UWE Bristol were about the new data services. I was pleased to answer some questions from the floor and to chat with people after my talk. Two areas of focus emerged:
Training
Capacity and capability were high on the agenda. I was pleased to report that capability building is a core objective of the programme. Our data services are busy establishing bespoke and cross-cutting training opportunities. These will be open to researchers across social sciences and beyond. We also sit within a bigger picture of data skills. Our colleagues in ESRC’s Skills and Talent team are in the process of identifying a new Research Skills Leadership Hub. This will support the development and delivery of research skills training and capacity building for the social sciences. More on all of this soon!
Data linkage
There was great interest in how ESRC enables join-up across its data infrastructures and beyond to enable easier data linkage and interoperability.
In SDR UK, we’re doing a few things to support these efforts
- From their inception, our data services have been required to work with existing Trusted Research Environments (TREs). The aim is to avoid creating new silos. Many of the teams have specific programmes of work around data linkage.
- We’re working closely with sister programmes like ADR UK and HDR UK, as well as collaborative initiatives like DARE UK. We’re also plugged into ESRC data collections and others in the data ecosystem. This will ensure our data services are connected and actively involved in efforts to enable federated access and analyses between TREs.
- We’re supporting exploratory data linkage through some of our Digital Footprints Accelerator projects.
Service availability and next steps
Our data services are being rolled out in phases, with some ready now and others in development. Each represents a strategic investment in making smart data more accessible and useful for researchers.
You will soon be able to find out about the availability of datasets and training opportunities directly from the services.
We’re also doing lots of outreach and engagement into different communities to drive forward our work across SDR UK. You can meet us at the Data Protection Conference in London in April. We will also be at the Digital Footprints Conference in Leeds in May and the Royal Statistical Society International Conference in September.
Get involved
If you’re interested in learning more about any of these services or exploring potential collaborations, please contact us at smartdataresearch@ukri.org.