Research and Innovation Staff Exchange Network of European Data Scientists (NeEDS)

Abstract:

NeEDS responds to the massive scientific and technological challenges that the very rapidly growing field of Data Science has created for users and producers of data in Europe and world-wide. The challenges stem from the complexity of the data, the completely novel questions posed to data scientists, as well as the need of non-experts to visualize and interact with the knowledge extracted from data in order to aid data-driven decision-making. Companies and public sector bodies around Europe find they cannot build up the required capabilities quickly enough, and Europe is remarkably behind US academia in increasing Data Science capacity. NeEDS provides an integrated modelling and computing environment that facilitates data analysis and data visualization to enhance interaction. NeEDS brings together an excellent interdisciplinary research team that integrates expertise from three relevant academic disciplines, Mathematical Optimization, Visualization and Network Science, and is excellently placed to tackle the challenges. NeEDS develops mathematical models, yielding results which are interpretable, easy-to-visualize, and flexible enough to incorporate user knowledge from complex data. These models require the numerical resolution of computationally demanding Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming formulations, and for this purpose NeEDS develops innovative mathematical optimization based heuristics. NeEDS consists of four academic beneficiaries, seven industrial beneficiaries (from industry sectors ranging from energy, retailing, insurance to banking, as well as national statistical offices), two academic partners and one industrial partner from five EU countries, USA and Latin America with strong and complementary expertise. With this composition, NeEDS is in a unique position to deliver cutting-edge multidisciplinary research to advance academic thinking on Data Science in Europe, and to improve the Data Science capabilities of industry and the public sector.