DARA Big Data: Colombia

The programme will build a multi-institute big data research and training network between Colombian and UK partners that will establish sustainable links via a Data Science Network, led by academics and developed and refined in consultation with industry. eResearch capacity is an absolute necessity in a world where the appropriate handling of big data - in the natural sciences, medicine, the humanities and the social sciences - is of paramount importance. This program will support the development of research capacity in Big Data and Data Science in Colombia through the creation of a joint UK-Columbia training network which will form the basis of a long term sustainable research collaboration.

The program is designed to create a UK-Colombia Data Science Network to advance research and training in big data science. The program does not intend to build physical infrastructure, but will utilise capacity at existing facilities developed for data intensive research in conjunction with Colombian partners.

The economic impact of training programs such as this is often found primarily in providing a skilled work force for an existing economy in order to grow that sector. The big data analytics economy is still emerging and the cohort of students trained by this program will be expected to contribute significantly to securing Colombia's future market share in this area. Impacts will be found primarily in three areas:

People: By establishing a joint UK-Colombia research network for Big Data & Data Science we will improve science and innovation expertise (i.e. capacity building). We will do this using student and researcher fellowships which include mobility schemes and joint training programs.

Research: By building on newly established scientific infrastructure in Colombia (BIOS HPC) we will develop an innovative research program that utilises techniques drawn from the fundamental scientific research surrounding the SKA project in order to translate the impact of those techniques into other domains. We will establish an innovative cross-disciplinary Data Science Network platform that can accelerate and enable data science innovation across multiple fields, both academic and non-academic, in Colombia.

Translation: We will target the expansion of data analysis, visualisation and management techniques necessary for the SKA into other domains. We will achieve this by partnering radio astronomy data science projects with non-astronomy data science projects under three common research themes: data visualisation, data analytics, and data systems & tools. This innovative approach will enable a parallel development of big data and data science techniques across multiple domains and allow us to use progress in the SKA project to develop innovative solutions on development topics outside the remit of SKA.