Welsh unis lead way to train data scientists
Two Welsh universities are to train the next generation of data scientists. The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) is being created as part of a £10m UK-wide investment from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).
Cardiff University’s Data Innovation Research Institute will lead the CDT in collaboration with Swansea University and Bristol University.
In a statement, Swansea University said: “Thanks to increasingly powerful technology, researchers can gather, store and utilise vast amounts of data – but to make sense of this data, many more experts are needed to ensure the UK takes full advantage. The centres will address this need for skills.”
Students on the four-year PhD course will use programming techniques, including artificial intelligence, to extract insight from huge datasets to make new discoveries.
They will analyse data from areas including astrophysics, nuclear and particle physics research.
The CDT will have industrial partners and students will have secondments to national and international partners.
Across the UK eight new CDTs have been created as part of the STFC’s £10m investment, training more than 100 PhD students at 19 universities.
The bulk of the funding comes from the £90m allocated for 1,000 new PhD places across all of the UK’s Research Councils, announced in the 2017 spring Budget as part of the National Productivity Investment Fund.
The seven other centres will be based at Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh/Glasgow and St Andrews universities, Liverpool and LIMU, Manchester/Lancaster/Sheffield, Southampton/Sussex/Portsmouth/ Queen Mary/Open and University College London.
STFC’s executive director of programmes, Professor Grahame Blair, said: “This investment will not only bring on the next generation of much-needed data scientists with the skills and knowledge to become leaders in the field, it will be crucial in ensuring the UK research sector and the UK economy remains competitive on the world stage.”
Professor Nuria Lorenzo-Dus, dean of postgraduate research at Swansea University, added: “Through the strong partnership between Swansea University and the Universities of Cardiff and Bristol this CDT will no doubt deliver our next generation of data scientist leaders.”