Data intensive science to be advanced in DISCnet Centre for Doctoral Training

The growing discipline of data intensive science is to be covered by a sustainable centre of innovative education, training and research led by the University of Southampton’s Physics and Astronomy department.

The new Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), known as DISCnet, will train postgraduate students to explore the untapped potential of big data and drive applications across a spectrum of industries.

DISCnet brings together a consortium of universities from the South East Physics Network (SEPnet), with its first students set to start in October 2017.

Principal Investigator Professor Mark Sullivan says: “Data intensive science has a huge, and rapidly growing, importance in much of our research and the potential to influence the economic and societal health of the UK and the wider world.

“The CDT will enable world-leading science with the latest big data sets from physics and astronomy, and prepare students for careers in data science outside academia. Part of the training will involve intensive, residential training in many areas of data science, and challenging placements in industry, commerce, and government organisations to exploit those skills in non-academic environments.”

The University of Southampton will be the lead institute for the centre, which is being funded by the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC). Organisers are preparing for 11 STFC-funded students to enter DISCnet in its first year, with matching studentships from the five SEPnet partners – the University of Southampton, the University of Sussex, the Queen Mary University of London, the University of Portsmouth and The Open University.