DDI Initiative case studies

We all know we should be saving for our future, but it’s hard to visualise ourselves in 20 or 30 years, especially when our costs today are so high.

Financial services company Aegon has been interested in the human behaviours behind financial decisions for years, but has recently taken a novel approach.

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership or KTP between Aegon and the University of Edinburgh, brokered by the Edinburgh Futures Institute, is exploring what makes us connect with our future selves in a meaningful way.

This just one example that funding from the DDI can have.

Kim McAllister talked to Tom Mathar from Aegon’s Centre for Behavioural Research, Professor Tina Harrison from the University of Edinburgh’s Business School and Emily Shipp, the Knowledge Transfer Partnership associate, to hear more.

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.

Health care data plays a pivotal role in transformative discoveries and enhancing patient outcomes. However, the journey to harness the full potential of health data is not without its challenges, such as those posed by clinical free-text records (including hospital discharge summaries and GP notes). These records hold valuable health-related information that sometimes cannot be found in coded - also known as structured - data. However, unlike coded data, free-text notes also contain sensitive information such as details of a patient that have the potential to make them identifiable. 

Natural language processing (frequently called NLP) is an approach that can be applied to extracts of these data to ensure they are made safe and secure before granting researchers' access. Exploring this area is Arlene Casey, who is a Dunhill Medical Trust Senior Research Fellow and the Principal NLP data scientist at DataLoch, which is a data service that provides access to extracts of data to approved researchers for projects in the public interest. Arlene's focus is on how free-text records could be processed to ensure people's identities are kept secure while enabling the data to be safely used for research. Integral to this development work is consulting with the public and being open and transparent in the methods used by DataLoch. Recently, DataLoch partnered with Ipsos Scotland in an initiative to undertake public consultation of privacy risk assessment in clinical free-text. 

In this podcast, Arlene and Ciaran Mulholland from Ipsos Scotland discuss a novel public consultation that has informed the decisions made by Arlene and her colleagues.

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.

Work experience for students can take many forms, and Edinburgh Futures Institute is pushing the boundaries by running a project to embed it into final year study.

The Student Challenge projects pair students with businesses with a goal of tackling real life problems. The companies get access to high-level research and the students gets hands on experience.

One such project involved Discover airlines, part of the Lufthansa group. Students tackled issues around the circular economy and the recycling of textiles used in aircraft.

This is just one example of the impact funding from the Data Driven Innovation initiative can have. 

Kim McAllister talked to Jule Klein, from Discover, and Vlada Kravtsova from Edinburgh Futures Institute, to hear more.

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.

Quantum computing is a complex area that’s developing rapidly. In order for industry needs and academic research to keep pace with one another, strategic partnerships have to form where each learns to speak the other’s language.

NatWest and the Edinburgh Futures Institute have established just such a partnership, with very successful outcomes.

This just one example that funding from the DDI can have.

Kim McAllister talked to Phoebe Choi from NatWest, quantum computing Professor Chris Heunen and Tobias Schneider from the Edinburgh Futures Institute to hear more

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.

Skills in computer programming are required more and more on degree courses, but often the course lecturers are not trained specifically to deliver.

That’s why the winter school was designed.

In recognition of the fact that many lecturers are self-taught programmers, Kasia Banas and her team at the Usher Institute designed a one day conference to bring together a variety of subject experts to share skills and knowledge.

This is just one example of the impact funding from the Data Driven Innovation initiative can have. 

Kim McAllister talked to Kasia and one of the delegates from the conference, Tobias, to find out more about the event.

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.

The use of artificial intelligence, or AI, is the subject of much discussion. As we rely more and more on automating tasks and making data-driven decisions, AI becomes a big part of the solution. But it only works when its models are trained using high quality data.

One partnership between industry and academia is testing the limits of AI models.

Tech company Advai has been using the supercomputing power at the EPCC at the University of Edinburgh to run the models on huge datasets, with potentially far-reaching results.

This is just one example of the impact funding from the Data Driven Innovation initiative can have. 

Kim McAllister talked to Chris Jefferson, the cofounder of Advai and Professor Mark Parsons, the Director of EPCC, to hear more.

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.

Project Lead Gemma Cassells and Lead author Matjaz Vidmar discuss the Lothians report and the potential for data driven innovation in East, West and Mid-Lothian.

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.

DDI Ambassador Briana Pegado speaks to journalist Kim McAllister to explain why the arts and creative industries need to embrace data.

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.

Featuring Sanjay Rakshit and Nick Baker 

Massive online open courses (MOOCS) are for people wanting to learn about how data can impact their career prospects. Two people who have completed such courses tell us how they changed their lives.

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.

Featuring Gary Watmough, Alan Duncan and Guyo Roba 

The Jameel Observatory combines the local knowledge and concerns of communities facing the threat of hunger with innovations in data science and humanitarian action. The food insecurity of tomorrow can be tackled today by early actions that increase the resilience and adaptive capacities of people living in harsh climates like the African drylands.

The Data Driven Innovation initiative is supporting hundreds of collaborations and organisations across Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. For more information follow their page on LinkedIn, find @datacapitaled on X (formerly Twitter) or go to the website ddi.ac.uk.