Data Science Institute

We aim to set the global standard for a truly interdisciplinary approach to contemporary data-driven research challenges. Established in 2015, the Data Science Institute (DSI) has over 300 members and has raised £50 million in research grants.

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About us

We are working to create a world-class Data Science Institute at Lancaster (DSI@Lancaster) that sets the global standard for a truly interdisciplinary approach to contemporary data-driven research challenges. DSI@Lancaster aims to have an internationally recognised and distinctive strength in being able to provide an end-to-end interdisciplinary research capability - from infrastructure and fundamentals through to globally relevant problem domains and the social, legal and ethical issues raised by the use of Data Science.

The Institute is initially focusing on the fundamentals of Data Science including security and privacy together with cross-cutting theme areas consisting of environment, resilience and sustainability;health and ageing, data and society and creating a world-leading institute with over 300 affiliated academics, researchers, and students.

Our data science, health data science and business analytics programmes have launched the careers of hundreds of data professionals over the last 10 years. Students from our programmes have progressed to data science roles at Amazon, PWC, Ernst & Young, Hawaiian Airlines, eBay, Zurich Insurance, the Co-operative Group, N Brown, the NHS and many others - please look at our Education pages for further details of the courses on offer.

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DSI Workshop Call Out 2024

Apply for funding for interdisciplinary research workshops

The Data Science Institute supports interdisciplinary research across a wide range of disciplines and interests. Institute members are passionately engaged in a wide range of data-intensive activity, which is addressing critical societal, economic and environmental questions, as well as generating new mathematical models and methods of digital innovation. We are delighted to collaborate with a wide range of centres across the University and take a broad definition of ‘data’ and ‘science’ - reflecting an inclusive outlook, which is critical to our mission.

To support the development of cross-disciplinary data intensive activity at Lancaster we are offering workshop funding for your projects. We welcome applications from colleagues with interests, which may include: the foundations of data science and AI, environmental data science, health data science, AI for design, AI and society, data and inclusion, digital innovation, citizen science and data visualisation. If you are unsure your proposal fits – please do drop a line to DSI.

Your workshops should aim to bring colleagues together for exciting dialogue and exchange, you may want to invite external colleagues from other universities, industry, policy, charity or civil society. Our only stipulation is that you must demonstrate collaboration beyond a single discipline.

Further Information. Proposals are sought for workshops to be held at Lancaster before the end of the academic year 2024/25. Funding of between £2000 - £5000 is available for each workshop. Funds can be requested to cover travel and subsistence costs associated with inviting UK/international speakers to the workshop, together with local costs associated with the event itself (venue, refreshments & food, etc.). We encourage workshops to invite non-LU researchers to attend and so it may be appropriate to charge external folks a nominal workshop fee to cover some of the costs, if your budget will exceed £5000.

DSI will be able to provide administrative support to help with these workshops (e.g., setting up the financial aspects, rooms and catering bookings) however the proposer(s) and a local organising committee will be ultimately responsible for organising the workshop. You will be asked to provide a short report for the DSI website of not more than 2-3 paragraphs, following the conclusion of your workshop. This may include photographic material where appropriate permissions are sought.

Proposals will be reviewed by a sub-group of DSI leadership and members, taking into account any conflicts of interest. Professor Heather Brown will lead the review process. We will aim to ensure, as far as possible, that funding is spread across the faculties of the University.

Proposal format

  • Proposals should consist of the following
  • Proposers: (inc. departmental affiliation)
  • Workshop focus: brief description of aims
  • Proposed local organisers (inc. departmental affiliation)
  • List of potential invited speakers
  • Brief justification of funds requested
  • Expected outcome/benefits from the workshop
  • Proposals should be sent in pdf/word format to the DSI mailbox by 15th November 2024.
  • Please keep to two sides of A4

We look forward to reading your proposals!

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact DSI.

New Data Science Institute Deputy Theme Leads in Environment/Health/Foundations/Society/Data Engineering

We are seeking applicants for the roles of Deputy Theme Lead across all of the Data Science Institute (DSI) themes, Environment, Health, Foundations, Society and Data Engineering (/dsi/research/). As the Data Science Institute approaches its 10-year anniversary, this is an exciting time to join the institute and help shape the future direction of data science and AI research at Lancaster. Working closely with the Theme Leads and Directors, the Deputy Theme Leads will participate in the overall management of DSI, help to organise events and activities, and to catalyse and support new cross-disciplinary data science research.

Deputy theme leaders would normally be appointed for a period of three years, and may be renewed. The post is open to suitably qualified academic staff who have a track record of, and commitment to, data science research in the identified areas. Prospective candidates are invited to discuss their applications informally with the appropriate DSI Theme Lead: Sally Keith - Environment (sally.keith@lancaster.ac.uk), Heather Brown - Health (h.w.brown@lancaster.ac.uk), Chris Kirkbride - Foundations (c.kirkbride@lancaster.ac.uk), Bran Knowles - Society (b.h.knowles1@lancaster.ac.uk) and Chris Jewell -Data Engineering (c.jewell@lancaster.ac.uk).

Candidates should submit a one-page statement of their interest in the role outlining their relevant experience and their vision of the topics that could form the focus of one of the theme areas, together with an accompanying CV. Expressions of interest should be received no later than Friday 18th October 2024 and sent to dsi@lancaster.ac.uk with the Subject Title: Deputy Theme Leader Application.

Master's Poster Conference

On Friday, over 100 students, academics, and project hosts gathered in Infolab for the annual Master's Poster Conference. Once again, there was an extremely impressive range of posters on display, which demonstrated the projects that the students had performed across many areas of data science and cyber security. The event was opened by DSI’s Co-director, Professor Chris Nemeth, who noted that the conference marked the end of the 10th year of our MSc Data Science and that the quality of the projects had been as high as ever. Prabhu Rajendran won the Co-Operative Group prize for Best Data Science Poster for his work analysing Cyberbullying on the Internet, which Professor Ruslan Mitkov supervised. Reflecting on the success of the event, Professor Dan Prince, Co-director of Security Lancaster, remarked that the posters amply demonstrated the skills that the students had developed during their time in Lancaster and that he was confident that these skills would serve them well in their coming careers.

We will be welcoming new cohorts on our MSc Data Science and MSc Cyber Security programmes, so academic colleagues are very welcome to contact Simon Tomlinson or Chris Lowerson if they’d be interested in working with the students and our partner organisations.

poster exhibition

Research Retreat Report 

Geospatial Research Retreat 20th and 21st June

On 20 June twenty academics from departments and research centres across the university with interests in mapping and analysing geographical data travelled to Low Wood Hotel, Ambleside, for a 2-day research retreat organized by the Data Science Institute. The aims of the retreat were twofold:

  1. To get to know each other and identify areas of common interest and expertise
  2. To begin to think about ways we could collaborate in exciting new forms of research by exploiting discipline strengths and interdisciplinary connections.

The retreat began with a keynote presentation from David Bodenhamer (Indiana University) on ‘Connecting Matter, Meaning, and Experience: Data Science, Spatial Humanities, and Deep Maps’. Drawing on his extensive experience as both an academic and leader of a highly influential interdisciplinary research centre, David talked with authority about how geospatial technologies have influenced, and continue to influence, humanities research. His presentation had something for everyone in the room, and many notes were taken!

This was followed by a series of informal ‘getting to know’ activities facilitated by Paul Mahony (Countryscape), leading to the formation of embryonic groups representing different discipline strengths and areas of application. The afternoon session began with a presentation on partnerships and knowledge exchange by Charlotte Stewart (RES) before returning to group work to sketch out initial project ideas. The first day ended with an evening meal and further informal networking as the sun set over the beautiful Low Wood bay.

The second day began with groups ‘walking and talking’ through their project ideas in the grounds of the hotel and along the shores of Windermere. It was liberating to be away from the conference room, flip chart and maker pen, albeit briefly! Mandy Dillon (RES) then gave a presentation on research funding, giving examples of recent and up-and-coming UK and EU calls with an emphasis on geospatial problems or solutions. The remainder of the day was spent working up the detail of the project proposals in readiness for a Dragons’ Den event in which one group member had 2 minutes to pitch the project idea to the assembled dragons – David, Mandy and Charlotte. The tension was palpable, with some groups avoiding the flames whilst others were well and truly singed!

Looking back, there is a lot to be said for getting away from campus, albeit briefly, to get to know colleagues from other departments and research centres and develop new interdisciplinary connections that may ultimately lead to exciting new collaborations. The research retreat has already been a success in this respect.

Over the next 12 months we hope to:

  1. grow the membership of the group
  2. organize a series of events designed to further stimulate the development of exciting multidisciplinary research and scholarship in geospatial data science

If you would like to be part of this group, please do get in touch!

  • Duncan Whyatt, Lancaster Environment Centre
  • Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Digital Humanities
  • Barry Rowlingson, Health and Medicine (CHICAS)
A view of Lake Windermere

Research Themes

Data Science at Lancaster was founded in 2015 on Lancaster’s historic research strengths in Computer Science, Statistics and Operational Research. The environment is further enriched by a broad community of data-driven researchers in a variety of other disciplines including the environmental sciences, health and medicine, sociology and the creative arts.

  • Foundations

    Foundations research sits at the interface of methods and application: with an aim to develop novel methodology inspired by the real-world challenge. These could be studies about the transportation of people, goods & services, energy consumption and the impact of changes to global weather patterns.

  • Health

    The Health theme has a wide scope. Current areas of strength include spatial and spatiotemporal methods in global public health, design and analysis of clinical trials, epidemic forecasting and demographic modelling, health informatics and genetics.

  • Society

    Data Science has brought new approaches to understanding long-standing social problems concerning energy use, climate change, crime, migration, the knowledge economy, ecologies of media, design and communication in everyday life, or the distribution of wealth in financialised economies.

  • Environment

    The focus of the environment theme has been to seek methodological innovations that can transform our understanding and management of the natural environment. Data Science will help us understand how the environment has evolved to its current state and how it might change in the future.

  • Data Engineering

    The Data Engineering theme aims to explore how we can utilise digital technologies to accelerate and enhance our research processes across the University.

Research Software Engineering

Within the Data Science Institute, our aim is to improve the reproducibility and replicability of research by improving the reusability, sustainability and quality of research software developed across the University. We are currently funded by the N8CIR, and work closely with our partner institutions across N8 Research.

Research Software Engineering

Upcoming Events

9th Oct

The Future of Lancaster’s Health Partnerships: Health@Lancaster Collaboration Cafe

Wednesday 9 October 2024, 9:00am to 9:45am
9th Nov

FoSS 2024 InterNET ZERO - How Much Do You Trust AI to Look After Your Energy for You?

Saturday 9 November 2024, 11:00am to 3:00pm

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Dead Man’s PLC: A new cyber threat in the industrial world?

Researchers at Orange Cyberdefence collaborate with Lancaster’s School of Computing and Communications to outline the possibility of a new way cyber criminals could target systems crucial to the functioning of industry-based systems.
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New Data Science Institute Deputy Theme Leads

New Data Science Institute Deputy Theme Leads in Environment/Health/Foundations/Society/Data Engineering
People in Infolab Foyer

Data Science and Cyber Security Master's Poster Exhibition

Over 100 students, academics, and project hosts gathered in Infolab for the annual Master's Poster Conference. Once again, there was an extremely impressive range of posters on display, which demonstrated the projects that the students had performed across many areas of data science and cyb
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Job Opportunity, ELSA Research Associates at The Alan Turing Institute

The Alan Turing Institute is recruiting for a Senior Research Associate and Research Assistant to work on the ELSA, Safe and Ethical AI Programme.

Please follow this link to find more information and how to apply:

https://cezanneondemand.intervieweb.it/turing/jobs/senior-research-associate-elsa-safe-and-ethical-ai-programme-45299/en/

https://cezanneondemand.intervieweb.it/turing/jobs/research-assistant-elsa-safe-and-ethical-ai-programme-45300/en/

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