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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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.

Latest News

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 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

5th Nov

Engagement and Impact in Media and Policy: being heard outside of the academic bubble

Tuesday 5 November 2024, 11:00am to 11:50am
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
3rd Dec

MSc in Forensic Linguistics & Speech Science (FLiSS): meet the team (LAEL students)

Tuesday 3 December 2024, 1:00pm to 2:00pm
3rd Dec

MSc in Forensic Linguistics & Speech Science (FLiSS): meet the team

Tuesday 3 December 2024, 3:00pm to 4:00pm

More Events

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The Data Science Institute - Apply for funding for interdisciplinary research workshops

The Data Science Institute supports interdisciplinary research across a wide range of disciplines and interests. We passionately engaged in a wide range of data-intensive activity, which is addressing critical societal, economic and environmental questions, new mathematical models and methods of digital innovation. We collaborate with a wide range of centres across the University and take a broad definition of ¡®data¡¯ and ¡®science¡¯ - reflecting an inclusive outlook.
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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 cyber security.

More News