University’s Big Data institute opens its doors

The Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA), based at University of Leeds, brings together two multi-million pound national research projects into medical and consumer data, enabling partnership between researchers and external organisations.

Professor Mark Birkin, director of LIDA, said the centre provides opportunity to use research to find real-world solutions to sustainability issues, healthy lifestyle challenges, transport problems and more.

He said: “There is masses of data out there - the question is how to analyse it.

“How do we use medical data to get better outcomes or more efficient provision of health services?

“How do we use consumer data to get the right capacity on the trains in the right places?

“The answers to those questions are in the data that’s being captured all around us.”

LIDA is home to £7m Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Bioinformatics and the national £5m Consumer Data Research Centre.

The centres primarily use data already collected from a range of sources, including travel networks, retail loyalty cards and medical databases.

These could be used to assess everything from whether the HS2 proposals are fit for purpose, or how a retailer can improve its product availability, Professor Birkin said.

Bringing the centres together in a dedicated space will allow researchers to better engage with commercial partners and public sector bodies, Professor Birkin said, as well as focusing the digital sector in the region.

“There’s a lot of talk, in Leeds particularly, about the potential for data analytics and digital, but it’s a bit fragmented” he said.

“We can institutionalise these things and starting building projects in an environment where they can flourish and grow.”

Medical software firm TPP is one of the University’s commercial partners. It jointly runs a database with six million de-identified patient records used for research into areas such as early interventions for frail and elderly people in the community.

Chris Bates, head of data and analytics at TPP, said the work done in the Institute is “exceptionally important”.

He said: “One of the really powerful things about the institute is how multidisciplinary it is.

“They’re bringing strands from hard science, along with mathematicians, health economists and behavioural scientists.

“It’s that broad collaborative effort which will help us to take the analytics and do some really interesting work and also apply it to real world situations.”

Cllr James Lewis, deputy leader of Leeds City Council, said cities around the world are benefitting from better analysis of data.

He said: “The LIDA provides a unique opportunity for the city to bring together existing expertise and data from across a range of organisations to solve real problems for people and communities.”

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As well as bringing together two high-profile national research projects, LIDA is an opportunity for the region to build and attract top-level digital skills, Professor Mark Birkin said.

While there is already extensive expertise in the digital economy, the speed of change means there is a shortfall of talent around the country.

The centre will help Yorkshire retain the best graduates in the region, Professor Birkin said.

He said: “The centre is a way of building impetus for the local digital economy, it will allow us to keep more of this talent in the region.

“It’s a really big opportunity for the North and for Leeds in particular, but we’ve got to generate and keep the talent.”