Page 4 - Doing Data Together by The Scotsman

DOINGDATATOGETHER PROMOTED CONTENT
Coronavirus made
clear the value of
data collaboration
Information was shared more widely and more quickly than ever before, and harnessed in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Peter Mathieson discusses the way forward
It has been a year like no other. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of our lives in 2020. Every decision taken during the pandemic – and every
effort to shape a safer future – has been influenced by data.
Data allowed experts to gene-sequence the virus, understand its structure and predict drugs that might help treat it. Data mapped how and where the virus was spreading, identified hotspots and helped shape policy decisions in response.
Like never before, we pored over graphs and statistics – of infection rates in different countries and regions, how death rates have differed from the annual norm and the importance of the R (reproduction) number.
And we tried to make sense of what all this information meant
in terms of the new rules and restrictions governing our daily lives. We have been implored, again and again, to “follow the science” in our work, our shopping trips, our social interactions. What this really means is following the data.
It has been a period where we have been stretched to our limits, and sometimes beyond, but also a time where individuals and organisations have risen to the toughest of challenges.
At the heart of our response
has been a desire to co-operate,
to support family, friends and neighbours, work colleagues and our wider community.
This collaborative approach
has also been at the heart of the data community’s response to
the pandemic. Never before has
it been more important to share data, at speed, with those who need it. Strong, effective partnership working has been vital in delivering insights from data – and helping to save lives.
To use the title of this supplement, it’s about Doing Data Together.
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
The University of Edinburgh itself was well down the path of different disciplines working together, but that has accelerated significantly over the last six months.
One clear example is the Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC), where the project moved quickly from planning to doing, as the systemic problems of the care sector highlighted by Covid-19 gave real urgency to the project.
The ACRC is a brilliant example of Doing Data Together, with
the private sector – in the shape of Legal & General – joining the university to look in depth at all aspects of care and how we can do things better.
The collaboration goes further: research outputs will be “open source” – ie, available for all those working in elderly care
to analyse and use – while at
a university level, the project leadership team brings together experts including experienced dementia researchers and highly-skilled engineers.
Professor Ian Underwood, an expert in sensors who
is involved in ACRC,
says: “Diverse teams generally operate
more effectively than
teams of people who
are very similar;
it’s about people
with different
perspectives harnessed
disciplines because you are part of a common goal and face common challenges.”
This sense of collaboration is also highlighted by the project to bring the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence to Edinburgh. A wide range of groups has come together to identify major challenges around access to finance on a global scale and find solutions.
We are also doing data
together locally, with fascinating collaborations emerging around the ways in which we use data- driven innovation to tackle fundamental challenges thrown up by the pandemic.
The DDI programme’s small grant fund is getting under the bonnet
of those challenges – mapping tourism recovery by examining
the attitudes of visitors from different countries to travelling to Scotland; looking at the resilience of food and drink businesses, and analysing healthcare demands to ensure we are better-prepared to cope with future crises. In each case, the university is working with relevant businesses and trade
bodies to better understand the challenges – and use data
to respond effectively. Last year,
rise to the very biggest challenges we face, including climate change, the future of work and inequality.
He also stressed that this will only happen if we do data right, if we provide that ethical framework to inform everything we do with data.
That’s why the university appointed Professor Shannon Vallor as the first Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) last autumn. To attract an academic of the calibre of Prof Vallor shows the global leadership that Edinburgh is taking in the ethics of data, AI and technology in general.
Prof Vallor insists we must not allow ourselves to fall into “technological determinism” and assume the dizzying pace of technological change will shape
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who bring different tools to problem- solving.
You have to learn other languages and understand the skills and tools of other
data effectively, we could
Jarmo Eskelinen, DDI
programme director, said if we
Strong, effective partnership working has been vital in delivering insights from data – and helping to save lives