Partner with the DSDP

The LIDA Data Scientist Development Programme provides data science solutions to academic, industry and public sector research challenges, whilst training up early career data scientists. We recruit early career graduates and career changers for 12 months to work on two 6-month projects each, involving real-world data and challenges provided by external project teams, to produce high-impact analytical solutions. Project teams are comprised of internal University of Leeds academics, affiliated academics, and external public or private sector partners.

Step 1

Choose a question or problem in the interests of public good (e.g. health / societies / environment focussed) that you would like answered with data in a 6 month long project.

Step 2

Establish funding to pay for the data scientist’s salary, training, travel and subsistence for the 6-month period (£19.5k per 6-month project). Please note that data scientists are recruited by LIDA and paid through University payroll. There may be additional costs associated with hosting your data on LIDA’s cloud based, highly secure data analytics IT platform (LASER) if the data is particularly sensitive. If you would like to discuss the potential costs of using this infrastructure then please get in touch with the LIDA Data Analytics Team.

Step 3

Build a project team consisting of;

• An academic lead based at the University of Leeds – they will supervise the work of the data scientist, (ideally with co-supervisors from different academic disciplines in order to promote sector-crossing, interdisciplinary collaborations)
• An external partner – a partner relevant to the research question in the public, private or third sector

If you’re an external partner in search of an academic lead, LIDA can help to put you in touch with a relevant academic who will mentor and supervise the work of the data scientist. If you’re an academic in search of an external partner and funding, contact our Research & Innovation Officer, Jodi Gunning.

January – Submit an expression of interest to let us know you’re considering the programme; we will assist in making connections to form your project team and build your proposal

February – Submit your formal proposal for your project to commence in Sept of that year or April the following year

March – Project selection panel reviews all proposals submitted and outcomes communicated to project teams

April – June – Data Scientist recruitment window

July – August – Offers made to successful data scientists (project PI’s are invited to take part in this process to match a data scientist to their project)

September – The new data scientists join the programme

October – March – Project 1

April – September – Project 2

For any questions regarding the programme, please contact Kylie Norman, Programme Co-ordinator, K.R.Norman@leeds.ac.uk.

If you wish to be put in touch with academics working in relevant fields, please contact Jodi Gunning, LIDA Research & Innovation Development Officer, j.gunning@leeds.ac.uk