ESRC ADR UK No.10 Data Science Fellowship 2021
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Department Name: Computer Science
Abstract
Collaborating with 10 Downing Street's data science team (10DS) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the fellow will utilise linked administrative data created by government and public bodies across the UK to enable vital research to support better informed policy decisions and more effective public services.
Analytical projects will be co-designed during a three-month inception phase, followed by a 12-month placement with 10DS and ONS where fellows will produce analysis to inform policy in priority policy areas, using a range of administrative, survey and newly created linked datasets in the access-restricted ONS Secure Research Service funded by ADR UK.
Alongside undertaking specified research projects throughout the year, fellows will engage with stakeholders to champion data science across central government and support wider knowledge exchange with researchers on effective policy collaboration and data analysis and will spend a further period of up to three months to enable approved knowledge exchange impact and publication activity.
Analytical projects will be co-designed during a three-month inception phase, followed by a 12-month placement with 10DS and ONS where fellows will produce analysis to inform policy in priority policy areas, using a range of administrative, survey and newly created linked datasets in the access-restricted ONS Secure Research Service funded by ADR UK.
Alongside undertaking specified research projects throughout the year, fellows will engage with stakeholders to champion data science across central government and support wider knowledge exchange with researchers on effective policy collaboration and data analysis and will spend a further period of up to three months to enable approved knowledge exchange impact and publication activity.
Publications
Botta F
(2024)
Packaging code and data for reproducible research: A case study of journey time statistics
in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
Botta F
(2024)
Rail journey cost calculator for Great Britain
in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
Botta F
(2023)
Rail journey cost calculator for Great Britain
Santana C
(2023)
COVID-19 is linked to changes in the time-space dimension of human mobility
in Nature Human Behaviour
| Description | The findings of my research have been presented to a wide range of government stakeholders to inform the direction of the work in this area, and to motivate further work needed to be done. They have shed light on the need of studying and understanding the cost of public transport and related issues, which is a topic that had not been received considerable attention until now. My work in collaboration with the FCDO was used to better understand the distribution of British nationals abroad, particularly useful in time of crisis. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Transport |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | DfT AI strategy |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Oral evidence at Transport Select Committee |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | https://committees.parliament.uk/event/20067/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/ |
| Description | Grant agreement |
| Amount | £14,324 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department of Transport |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 04/2023 |
| Title | Data on cost of rail journeys |
| Description | I created a tool and a data set detailing the cost of train journeys for accessing different destinations. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The tool and data set enable policy makers to understand connectivity and inequalities in the cost of public transport and design policies to improve this throughout the United Kingdom. |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.19754.pdf |
| Title | Journey Time Statistics package |
| Description | I developed a tool that makes data on journey time statistics more easily accessible and usable to data scientists. This was also published as a blog post on the Office for National Statistics Data Science Campus website. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Not known yet. |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.16205.pdf |
| Title | Data set on cost of journeys |
| Description | I created a data set which contains the cost of rail journeys to access a range of services and destination. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The data set is of use to: - policy makers, for investigating and tackling inequalities in the rail transport system - academics interested in working with geospatial data on the cost of transport |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.19754.pdf |
| Description | DfT research grant |
| Organisation | Department of Transport |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | I am supervising a Graduate Research Assistant on a project funded by the Department for Transport; my contribution is mainly my expertise and supervision of the GRA. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The department for transport is providing the research question, the data and the guidance of this project. |
| Impact | DfT has now a new pipeline for analysing data related to the installation of EV chargers and detect potential frauds. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Title | JTS Python package |
| Description | This is a python package to allow reproducible and easy access to a data set released by the Department for Transport. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | This could be of great use to policy makers and academics interested in working with data on journey time statistics. |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.16205.pdf |