LIDA: Societies

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light on human systems and the need for modern social data science to provide improved insight into and predictions at multiple scales. We have a social responsibility to respond to these needs, and national interests and research funding will undoubtedly follow this trajectory.

Our Mission

LIDA: Societies aims to shape and progress the way data science is done, to benefit future society. Through a range of events and initiatives, we aim to create interactions and new ways of thinking that transcend typical boundaries between data science and social science.

What we do

We provide a network for researchers from a range of backgrounds and academic disciplines at the University of Leeds to collaborate and contribute to advancing state-of-the-art data science to tackle global challenges.
We use understanding and analysis from diverse perspectives for complex, modern societal challenges and closely involve domain experts, policymakers, and community members to avoid silo-working.

Read our full working strategy for the community.

• To better understand and predict human behaviour and social systems in all of its interconnected complexity.
• To improve our understanding of how people and environments interact in determining public health, wellbeing, and sustainability.
• To understand the complexities of inequalities within our societies, and how different environments, lifestyles, cultures, capabilities, infrastructure, governance, and other factors play interacting roles in shaping inequalities.
• To consider how new technologies and practices (including our data and methods themselves) can enhance but also challenge society.