UCL and Elsevier launch the UCL Big Data Institute
UCL and Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific,
technical and medical information products and services, today announced they
will establish the UCL Big Data Institute.
It
is a new collaboration to explore innovative ways to better serve needs of
researchers through the exploration of new technologies and analytics as
applied to scholarly content and data.
Elsevier
believes linking analytics and scientific content is one of the key enablers to
better serve scientists and the company will fund research and studentships
through the new Institute, offering exciting new opportunities to research the
analysis, use and storage of big data.
The
new Institute will complement Elsevier’s recent acquisition of Mendeley, a
company that operates a global research management and collaboration platform
in the heart of east London’s tech start-up community, and Elsevier’s recent
investment into building a London-based world-class web analytics group.
Elsevier will establish a Centre of Excellence within the web analytics group
in connection with the Institute, co-staffed with UCL researchers looking at
areas outlined earlier. This will offer employment as well as commercialisation
activities in collaboration with UCL Business and UCL Consultants.
UCL
has a wide range of other research activities and joint initiatives within the
broad and expanding area of big data and research analytics. To fully realise
the synergy between these initiatives through the sharing of insights and
resources, UCL is developing a Research Domain for “e-Research”. UCL plans to
have a connected community, from particle physics to digital humanities,
sharing insights into better use of large computational resources in research.
The Big Data Institute will be a key addition to that family of activities.
UCL
will have access to Elsevier’s world-class research data and enterprise-level
technology, opening up new research possibilities with a broad range of applications.
One such proven, open source big data technology, HPCC, is being used by
Elsevier in the ScienceDirect platform, and across Elsevier’s parent company.
UCL
President and Provost, Professor Michael Arthur, said: “The UCL Big Data
Institute will keep us at the forefront of addressing pressing issues around
the storage of big data, the curation of scientific information, and the
production, disclosure and consumption of research information. UCL and
Elsevier inevitably have complementary interests in many aspects of research
dissemination and will both together and independently continue to develop
these for the good of the global research effort.”
Ron
Mobed, Elsevier Chief Executive, said: “This is a significant investment
by Elsevier in UK science, in an area where we have outstanding expertise, and
in a collaboration with a world-leading institution. Our aim is to help
scientists do better research and do it faster.”
Rt
Hon David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, who attended
the launch event at UCL, said: “Big data is one of the eight great
technologies. It has the potential to play a crucial role supporting the growth
of the UK economy. It’s estimated that the big data market will create up
to 58,000 new UK jobs by 2017. Collaborations such as the one between
University College London and Elsevier are vital if we are to take full
advantage of the big data revolution and stay ahead in the global race.”
Further information on the partnership and the wider relationship between UCL
and Elsevier can be found here.
If
you have specific questions and comments, please contact Professor David Price,
Vice-Provost for Research, at [email protected].
Read the article –
UCL and Elsevier launch the UCL Big Data Institute
