Data Scientist Development Programme

Our award-winning data science programme is an opportunity for graduates and career changers looking to pursue a career in data science. It provides on-the-job training and experience in the form of a fixed 12-month, paid role.

The data scientists own the delivery of two 6-month projects, working on real-world problems with real data across Health, Environment and Societies. They work with external partners across the public, private, charitable and education sectors. They also work with leading scholars, and the wider LIDA and University of Leeds research community.

We are always looking for new partnerships with public and private sector organisations. 

The programme offers early career data scientists the opportunity to hone their expertise working on real-world data and topical research questions, whilst giving academics and LIDA’s partners the chance to harness new talent in finding novel ways to solve data problems. Since it began in 2016, it has provided 61 paid interns with hands-on experience and ownership of projects drawn from the fields of social science, health and engineering, using data science for public good.

It provides an outstanding opportunity to develop skills that are in high demand within industry and academia, both nationally and globally, within a growing, state-of-the-art facility. We have dedicated health, environment and societies communities at LIDA, as well as programmes for Artificial Intelligence, Statistical Data Science, Immersive Technologies, Machine Learning and Data Science Infrastructures.

Build skills and knowledge in:

Statistical analysis, data visualisation, research methods, computer programming, critical thinking and receive on-site and external training opportunities with your own allocated budget.

The main duties of the LIDA Data Scientist include:

• Helping to advance research activity across each of LIDA’s constituent areas: AI, Health Informatics, Urban Analytics, Statistical and Mathematical methods, and Visualisation and Immersive Technologies;
• Undertaking quantitative analysis on core datasets; e.g. data wrangling, data linkage, data scraping, modelling and analysis; dealing with missing data;
• Planning your own research activity in collaboration with the project investigators and other members of the research team;
• Meeting with clients and partners in support of LIDA’s partnership-building strategy;
• Participating in and presenting at LIDA research meetings and seminars;
• Delivering written outputs, including blog articles, case studies and contributing to research papers;
• Attending and representing your project at relevant conferences through poster presentations or giving papers.

The DSDP is a great way to partner with LIDA on short-term research projects, as well as building data science capacity in line with the Government’s AI Roadmap. We partner with public, private and third sector organisations, some of our recent collaborators include Sainsburys, the NHS, Burberry, Southwest Water, Enterprise Car Club and the Alan Turing Institute.

Do you have a research question or data challenge, but no time or expertise to tackle this in-house? Find out more about partnering with us on the programme