UBDC receives new ESRC grant for continuation of its Data Service

The Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) is pleased to announce that the UBDC Data Service has been granted a further £1.3m funding from UKRI-ESRC for an extension of its activities until April 2022.

This will ensure that the Data Service continues to offer a wide range of datasets for researchers across the world to study urban issues. It will run alongside UBDC’s funding as a research centre, which continues to 2024.

The UBDC national Data Service was originally established in 2014. At its core is a data collection, comprising more than one thousand open, safeguarded and controlled datasets. These have been acquired since 2014 under licence, through partnership agreements, and as a result of our data collection activities, led by our talented team of data scientists and urban researchers. Since 2014, the Data Service has received requests from researchers at nearly 300 institutions, spanning 32 countries. It also lies at the heart of our activities as a research centre, enabling us to use a wide range of data and innovative research methods to study social, economic and environmental issues within our cities.

UBDC’s Senior Data Science Manager Dr Andrew McHugh said:

“The value of new and emerging data sources for social researchers has never been more evident than in recent times, where they’ve been a key resource to help answer and inform social, economic, environmental, and mobility questions within cities. We’re therefore delighted to be tasked by ESRC-UKRI to continue to provide widespread access to data and build capacity to deliver scientific and policy benefits and impact”.

If you or your organisation are interested in exploring ways to increase the value of your data, or if you are a researcher looking to potentially utilise our collection, please do get in touch.