Data Analytics and Society: A Centre for Doctoral Training in New Forms of Data

A consortium of universities is training doctoral researchers to harness new forms of data—such as social media feeds, mobile phone signals, and sensor networks—for the public good. This matters because traditional data sources, like censuses and surveys, are becoming too slow and narrow to capture how society actually behaves in real time. The gap is between the data we have and the data we need to understand complex social issues—from traffic flows to public health trends to economic inequality. Without skilled analysts who can work with messy, large-scale digital traces, policymakers and businesses risk making decisions based on outdated or incomplete information. If this training succeeds, a new generation of data scientists will emerge who can turn raw digital exhaust into actionable insights. They might improve how cities manage congestion, how public health agencies spot disease outbreaks early, or how retailers optimise supply chains. More broadly, the centre aims to embed ethical and social considerations into data analytics from the start, rather than as an afterthought. The project is fundamentally about building human capacity—it does not promise a specific technological breakthrough, but rather the skilled people needed to make sense of the data-driven world already taking shape.