You don’t need to spend long chatting to Jarmo Eskelinen to pick up on his excitement at his new role as the man in charge of helping drive data driven innovation into the hearts and minds of people in and around Edinburgh…
The £661 million Data Driven Innovation programme is at the heart of the recently announced Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, and will play the key role in helping Edinburgh achieve the ambition of becoming the Data Capital of Europe.
Working together to deliver the 10-year programme are the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University, whose experts will collaborate with industrial partners on data-based projects in the public, private and third sectors.
If all that sounds just a bit high tech-speak to you, then recalibrate. Data science is already playing a massive part in our daily lives, and that is only going to increase. Through high-speed data analytics, our ability to capture flows of data and understand what they tell us is bringing better and faster capability to identify trends and improve processes across many sectors, leading to better services for consumers and citizens.
All of this at a time when the world is wresting with huge and complex issues such as the mass displacement of people, or global warming and climate change, the need for data science has never been stronger.
Jarmo believes Edinburgh is uniquely well placed to meet the challenge. “The City has a tremendous physical infrastructure, and is fast developing a global reputation for its technical expertise and digital infrastructure. The University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt are both world leaders in their fields in data, artificial intelligence and robotics. We are setting ambitious targets – such as producing 100,000 data science qualified graduates over the next ten years.
Jarmo added: “Placing Edinburgh at the world-leading edge of that movement will create jobs and opportunities, and will help deliver more services, more effectively. Of course, there will be some areas in which industry disruption, brought by changes such as AI and autonomous systems, will mean jobs might be at risk, but we believe the opportunities for new jobs will be even greater. Unlike in previous industrial revolutions, what we need to do is make sure all our citizens are ready for the opportunities.”
That means engaging with schools, colleges and universities, as well as with the public, private and third sectors. It means working with educators to ensure young people are better skilled to succeed in the new age of data and informatics. DDI programme is already engaging with schoolteachers, with students, with teachers: the DDI Skills Gateway programme aims to reach out to all schools in the region, teaching data to up to 250 000 pupils.
Meeting challenges that affect us all inevitably means having to stretch across the traditional boundaries of national borders, institutional walls and areas of expertise.
Centres of action are five new innovation hubs located in University campuses, to be completed during the next few years. “The Bayes Centre is already connecting informatics researchers with innovators from companies. The site of the old Royal Infirmary is being renovated to create the Edinburgh Futures Institute, opening in 2021. While it is a place where we can assemble experts who can tackle issues from different and unconventional perspectives, gathering many hands to untangle the world’s knottiest problems, it is also open to teachers, schools and the general public. The motto above the entrance works today as well as in the 1700’s: Open To All.”
Jarmo provides a particular example to show that how well we mine our data can change lives, in a sector rich in potential as far as data innovation is concerned – health. Cross disciplinary experts of the Usher Institute, the DDI Hub for health and social care, examined the information contained in coronary artery disease clinical work with 42,000 patients, looking at the occurrence of sudden heart attacks – those that could not be predicted.
“By asking different questions of the data, new information came to light. The focus turned into much lower dosages of a particular heart-based protein than previously considered relevant. The analysis proved that female patients with slightly elevated levels had ten times higher risk of a sudden cardiac arrest than average. Changes to lab testing are now in clinical trials, with the potential to detect heart failure risk better, saving lives.”
Roslin Institute will be the hub for Agritech, and National Robotarium in the Heriot Watt campus will bring robotics expertise of both Universities under the same roof. Supporting the work of the hubs, is a the World Class Data Infrastructure in the EPCC super-computing facility for the secure and trustworthy sharing and analysis of datasets.
The Programme will increase the contribution of university research and in-demand graduate skills to the region’s economy, launching more spinout companies, attracting start-ups and established businesses, and driving public and private sector investment.
And as part of all of the work, the Data Driven Innovation Programme will also lead the way in looking at the ethical issues of using data. Jarmo added: “This is an important issue. Look at the current situation around the world – there is lots of work to be done to create the balance between respecting privacy, enabling innovation and making sure our systems are secure. While we want to maximise the benefits of data science for the common good, we also need to be aware of ethical issues and be comfortable that we are not just doing it well, but that we are doing it right.”
