Big Data and Data Science in Scotland: An ssac discussion Document
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- Appendix A: Details on Activities
4. Discussion PointsIt will be apparent from the map that Scotland has a number of existing and new big data activities, which can be somewhat roughly labelled: science, medicine, public sector, and innovation. There is an opportunity to draw the threads together, both to reduce the risk of fragmentation, and to capitalise on the scale of existing activity. Some questions will need to be addressed.
It will be clear (especially in the light of Appendix A) that there are points of overlap between some of the activities – for instance, between the Farr Institute and the Digital Health Institute. But equally, support for big data in construction (see Appendix B) or agriculture is not currently prominent.
UK policy-making has been developing rapidly (see Appendix C), and in particular has developed an information economy strategy. There are also significant opportunities for big data-oriented research in the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme (see Appendix D).
UK policy-making has also framed requirements for a national information infrastructure and actions to open government data, in the context of the information economy strategy. Scotland’s Digital Directorate is currently forming an Open Data Policy for the public sector.
The Open Data Institute (see Appendix C) expedites the opening up of datasets via data.gov.uk, and has recently announced a series of open data nodes (cities and regions within and beyond the UK)
At every level – Scotland, UK, EU, USA – the skills gap is identified as a threat. At a more general level, big data and data science will only succeed if the public can trust the relevant bodies.
Appendix A: Details on ActivitiesA.1 Scientific Research and Research Infrastructurewww.epcc.ed.ac.uk www.supa.ac.uk www.stfc.ac.uk www.sicsa.ac.uk www.bioss.ac.uk www.hutton.ac.uk www.roslin.ed.ac.uk www.camerascotland.org As noted, Scotland already hosts major facilities for UK High Performance Computing (HPC) and associated storage at EPCC, and there is significant engagement in scientific computing in Glasgow and beyond. Scotland’s physicists involved in a number of large-scale projects, while fields such as life sciences and environmental sciences make increasing use of big data techniques. EPCC, the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, “hosts and administers a number of national-level facilities: HECToR - UK national supercomputing facility provided by RCUK; DiRAC - UK national supercomputing facility provided by STFC; UK Research Data Facility … provided by RCUK.” EPCC also hosts Supercomputing Scotland, promoting the use of HPC in business. Physicists in the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) are major users of HPC e-Infrastructure; furthermore, SUPA’s CEO Jim Hough also leads an International Max Planck Partnership , which links five SUPA departments with five Max Planck Institutes in Germany, focussing on observation and measurement at the quantum limit. The Higgs Centre for Innovation was announced on 5 December 2013; STFC quote David Willetts saying it will focus on “big data and space technologies, two of the Eight Great Technologies of the future.” Opening in 2016, with STFC capital investment of £10.7M, the Centre will be sited at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh, supporting entrepreneurship through access to specialist instruments and big data capabilities. As noted earlier, current data science demands techniques from algorithms, databases, and machine learning. Dealing with unstructured and semistructured data demands deep expertise in capturing, organising, extracting and communicating information from streams of text, speech and images; Scotland is therefore fortunate to host world-class groups in (for example) information retrieval, natural language understanding, and many-core processing. Furthermore, many machine learning methods are rooted in traditional statistical techniques, and so Scotland’s strength in computing is supplemented by further academic expertise in statistics and applied mathematics. Contacts: Dave Britton, John Chapman, Rod Murray-Smith (Glasgow); Richard Kenway, Arthur Trew, Lesley Yellowlees, David Robertson (Edinburgh). As an example on the life sciences side, Edinburgh Genomics is distinctive in being funded by NERC, BBSRC, and MRC. It is part of the “NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility, a collaboration of nodes across the UK that … [provide] advanced technologies in sequencing, genotyping, metabolomics and bioinformatics”. It also has core funding “as part of the BBSRC commitment to National Capability in genomics, delivered through the Roslin Institute”, and it is “one of MRC’s two currently funded High Throughput Sequencing Hubs”, with particular experience in human genomics and transcriptomics. Turning to environmental and related sciences, BioSS focuses on mathematics and statistics as applied to agriculture, the environment, food and health. BioSS is “one of the Main Research Providers (MRPs) for strategic research in environmental, agricultural and biological science funded by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS). We have a distributed staff structure … with headquarters on the King’s Buildings science campus of the University of Edinburgh and offices in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Ayr.” BioSS is formally part of the James Hutton Institute, and has five scientific themes: (i) Cell and Molecular Sciences; (ii) Ecological Sciences; (iii) Environmental and Biochemical Sciences; (iv) Information and Computational Sciences; and (v) Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences. The Roslin Institute “undertakes research within the framework of BBSRC Institute Strategic Programmes focussed on the health and welfare of animals, and applications of basic animal sciences in human and veterinary medicine, the livestock industry and food security.” The Coordinated Agenda for Marine, Environment and Rural Affairs Science (CAMERAS) “is a partnership initiative between: Scottish Government – Marine Scotland Science, Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS), and Science Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA); Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Scottish Natural Heritage; Forestry Commission Scotland; Food Standards Agency Scotland; Quality Meat Scotland; and Scottish Water. Its purpose is to align and coordinate the scientific activity of the partner organisations to ensure best use of existing resource and enhanced support to Scottish Government policy development and delivery”. Contacts: Mark Blaxter (Director, Edinburgh Genomics), David Elston (Director, BioSS), Iain Gordon (CEO, Hutton), David Hume (Director, Roslin), Julie Simpson (CAMERAS, Scottish Government).
www.edina.ac.uk www.dcc.ac.uk www.jisclegal.ac.uk JISC has three UK-level units in Scotland: EDINA; DCC, the Digital Curation Centre; and JISC Legal. EDINA provides access to an online library of information resources to enhance the work of UK academics. The DCC (Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bath) provides expert advice and resources to those who store, manage, protect and share digital research data in UK HEIs. Jisc Legal raises awareness of, and provides guidance on, legal issues surrounding the use of technology in academia. Contacts: Peter Burnhill (Director of EDINA and Head of Edinburgh University Data Library), Kevin Ashley (Director of DCC, Edinburgh), Ralph Weedon (Director of JISC Legal, Strathclyde). Creativity, Regulation, Enterprise and Technology http://www.create.ac.uk/ CREATe (based in Glasgow) is the RCUK centre for copyright and new business models in the creative economy. With an ambitious programme of 40 projects delivered by an interdisciplinary team of academics (law, economics, management, computer science, sociology, psychology, ethnography and critical studies), CREATe is a pioneering academic initiative designed to help the UK cultural and creative industries thrive within the global digital economy. Contact: Martin Kretschmer (Director of Create, Glasgow). Directory: sites -> default -> files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations files -> Nstructions for Acquiring Excess Equipment online, through the 1033 Program files -> Occupational health and safety files -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten Point Program files -> International programs roel profile files -> Fermi Questions a guide for Teachers, Students, and Event Supervisors Lloyd Abrams, Ph. D. DuPont Company, cr&D/ccas experimental Station Wilmington, de 19880 files -> Personal Information Name: Maha Al-Ammari Nationality: Saudi Relationship Status Download 134.89 Kb. Share with your friends:
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