Dear JGI community

We are pleased to announce the JGI’s second round of research funding is now open to applicants.

We were overwhelmed by the positive response that we received when we launched the first round of funding earlier in the year and the outputs of the JGI funded projects have been excellent.

The primary aim of this scheme is to support activities that will foster interdisciplinary research in the area of data-intensive research. Our priority workstreams address these themes:

• data driven solutions to societal challenges
• data visualisation and materiality
• developing communities through data
• addressing data as a shared knowledge base (information commons).

However, we are very open to hear from you and your research ideas, so contact us if you have any queries at ask-jgi@bristol.ac.uk. More information and the application form can be found on the JGI Funding page.

With best wishes from the JGI team

Welcome to September’s JGI Community Update

Please share with your networks and invite people to Join the JGI Community through completing our quick online form – Join the JGI Community

News

An explosion of data – applications and implications of a data driven society

At the end of the summer, JGI’s resident Data Scientist, Bobby Stuijfzand joined the Bristol Skeptics in the Smoke and Mirrors pub on Denmark Street, Bristol to present ‘An explosion of data – applications and implications of a data driven society’.

Our ability to generate and use data has tremendously increased in the past few years. Data is now influencing many aspects of daily life, from tailoring our internet experiences to the managing of traffic flows on smart motorways. Data is also the key driver behind major technological advances based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Advances are expected to have major effects on society as we know it (think for example about driverless cars, electronic personal assistants and the internet of things). Data is a powerful, promising and omnipresent force in modern day society. But this however, sits quite uncomfortably with many of us. We don’t always know where and when data is being collected, what it is being used for and what we get back from it.

Bobby presented differing views on the impact of data in society and sparked lively debates amongst the crowd.

Funding opportunities

GW4 Initiator and Accelerator Fund

Deadline 31 October 2017

Initiator fund: up to £20K. Accelerator fund: £20-75K

The panel wishes to particularly encourage applications with a focus on Global Challenges Research Fund and Industrial Challenge Strategy Fund.

Jean Golding Institute (JGI) Seed corn funding

The Jean Golding Institute will be launching a seed corn funding call soon, stay tuned!

More funding opportunities

A list of current funding opportunities is available on the Research Development website. (UoB internal only)

Events

For up to the minute events relevant to the data intensive research community please see our events page on the JGI website

Improving health through better use of data

Tuesday 19 September @ 13.00 – 16.30 Armada House, Telephone Avenue, Bristol BS1 4BQ

Bristol Health Partners and the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute are creating a new resource, a Health Data Inventory. For the first time, this will provide an easy way to understand what information is available for research in our region and where it’s held. Bristol is the first region to develop such a tool and this is your chance to define how this tool should be used.

This workshop will introduce the Health Data Inventory and pilot funding will be made available by the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for University of Bristol researchers to develop high quality pilot projects using this data. For more information please email oliver.watson@bristol.ac.uk.

Working group on data visualisation: good and bad practices

Tuesday 26 September 2017 @  13.00 – 14.00 Beacon House Seminar Room, University of Bristol, BS8 1SE

This is the first bring-your-own-lunch meeting of the University of Bristol data visualisation working group. In this meeting we will focus on good and bad practices in data visualisation.

The ‘Data visualisation’ working group is interested in representing large scale data in innovative ways: i.e. more than just a graph! There will also be time scheduled to identify the future directions and needs of the group, and we hope to get an idea of who may be willing to lead one or more sessions (but you are also more than welcome to attend if you are not comfortable/willing to lead a session).

This session will be led by Harriet Mills and Bobby Stuijfzand and we are currently collecting materials (i.e. good and bad visualisations) as input for discussion during the meeting. If you are aware of any good (or bad!) data visualisations, please do email them to bg.stuijfzand@bristol.ac.uk

The working group is supported by the Jean Golding Institute (JGI).

Bristol Bridge: Interdisciplinary approaches and new directions in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) research at Bristol

Wednesday 27 September 2017 @ 13.00 – 18.00 Lecture Theatre 3 and East Foyer, School of Chemistry

As you may be aware, the BristolBridge AMR network project concludes on 30 September. To mark this, there will be a final event to celebrate its achievements and those of the wider AMR research community at Bristol. AMR research is currently being undertaken in 5 of our 6 Faculties and in 12 Schools and Departments.  Many in the AMR research community also work closely with Bristol’s NHS trusts, Public Health England labs, the veterinary and farming community and increasingly with industry.

The AMR research community has much to celebrate – the University of Bristol is currently leading the UK in the number of awards (and value) from the cross-council AMR funding initiative.  They will also be looking forward to some new AMR research and training initiatives at Bristol too.

All AMR and related posters are very welcome (please note that all projects/activities that have been funded by BristolBridge are requested to present a poster, thank you). Please register. The deadline for registration is 20 September 2017.

Ada.Ada.Ada. A Theatre Production

16 October 2017 @ 11.00 The Lantern Theatre, Colston Hall, Bristol, UK

 Free tickets are for children and teachers / accompanying adults from state schools. Ada.Ada.Ada is an interactive theatre production which celebrates the work of Mathematician Ada Lovelace. The Jean Golding Institute (JGI) is sponsoring this event. The aim of the show is to inspire the next generation of technical innovators and help people, especially girls and women, to engage with technology and STEM as a career. For more details please see Ada.Ada.Ada. A Theatre production

Bristol Suspension Bridge sound wave installation

20 October 2017 @ 17.00 – 19.00 The Hub, Unit 5-6, 1 Canon’s Road, Bristol, BS1 5UH

Bristol based musicians and sound artists Yas Clarke and Lorenzo Prati have been working alongside the Jean Golding Institute and Bristol University’s Music and Engineering Departments to produce an installation which sonically represents structural data of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

This unique installation takes the form of a robotic two-course harp resembling the Clifton Suspension Bridge in shape. The instrument will be played by two independent robotic arms, each one strumming the strings of one side of the harp in response to data harvested on the north and south side of the bridge.

This intriguing installation forms part of Digital Bristol Week and is open to the public at this Waterfront venue. Keep checking the JGI website events page for more details as they emerge.

University of Bristol Engineering Research Showcase

14 November 2017 @ 1pm – 6.30pm New Wing, Queen’s Building, University Walk, Bristol, BS8 1TR

Meet with academic and industry colleagues and explore opportunities for developing new collaborations and partnerships

For full details see Engineering Research Showcase 2017

Digital Catapult Pit Stop

27 and 28 November 2017 Digital Catapult, London

BOC is the largest provider of industrial, medical and special gases in the UK and Ireland and is part of The Linde Group. BOC is interested in identifying collaboration partners for developing solutions, as well as learning about plug and play technologies that can support discovery of customer insights. Innovators could also benefit from involvement in upcoming collaborations with BOC and other activities promoted by Digital Catapult.

The Pit Stop is a focused open innovation activity designed to accelerate the growth of new ideas. You will get the chance to explore specific challenges of BOC’s datasets and discuss potential solutions with BOC and technology and industry experts. To attend this Pit Stop please apply by 13 October 2017

Competitions

Enter the new UBDC cycling data challenge to win great prizes!

The Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) is offering voucher prizes. Entries close 1 October 2017
Download the data, develop your ideas and pitch your innovations to an expert judging panel to win the exciting new cycling Data Challenge and take home the £1,000 voucher prize.

The benefits of cycling as a mode of transport are well documented – including saving money, improving health and a cleaner environment for all. Whether you’re an academic, in business, involved in a charity, a startup or a data enthusiast the challenge is to use Strava Metro data to develop innovative solutions to answer the question, how do we get more people cycling?

This is how it works: the data will be provided and the rest is up to you! Your entry could take the form of a tool, an app, a visualisation, a linked dataset, or a new piece of software to clearly demonstrate your ideas. Following the first round of judging, selected finalists will be invited to pitch their innovations to the judging panel and an audience of event attendees at a Demo Day.

New ‘Data Sandbox’ research competition to be launched soon

The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), via the Rail Research UK Association (RRUKA), is to invest up to £500,000 in academic-led feasibility studies to identify data driven solutions to key network performance challenges in the rail industry in order to increase reliability, capacity and maintainability of the railway system.

Please visit the Data Sandbox webinar hub for more info and to join the discussion.

Register to attend the information and networking day on 31 October 2017 in London

Adonis: help us create the UK’s first digital twin

Bristol may soon have its own ‘digital twin’ – a first for the UK – through a new competition launched by Lord Adonis. Find out more.

User surveys

Capital Roadmap for X-ray Computed Tomography: EPSRC user survey

Open until 15 October 2017

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have just launched the Capital Roadmap for X-ray Computed Tomography: EPSRC user survey to get a better understanding of the future needs for investment in cutting-edge and underpinning equipment that will support world-leading physical science and engineering in the UK.

An important element of these roadmaps is to understand the current equipment provision across the UK. The working group would like the help of the community to inform EPSRC’s understanding of current provision by completing this survey. The group would also like to collect views on the future challenges and technical developments in tomography required to enable new science.

UK Data Service survey

Want to improve your ability to find data and use data in your research? Then take this online survey to give the UK Data Service feedback on their current Discover search interface and give input into their next-generation data repository, which will improve your ability to explore, analyse and link data in the UK Data Service’s collection.

This survey is the first of many initiatives in their endeavour to generate a special focus on user experience for the UK Data Service. In recognition of those giving their time to respond to these questions they are offering the first 100 respondents a £20 Amazon voucher as a thank you (terms and conditions apply).

Keep in touch

We are always happy to hear from you!

Would you like your events publicised by the JGI? Do you have interesting datasets that you would like to share/promote? Have any queries or would like to get involved? Please contact us jgi-admin@bristol.ac.uk

Follow us on Twitter @JGIBristol

Hello JGI community,

A few updates

EVENTS 

Data visualisation using Tableau workshop

 13 September 9:30 am -5 pm

The Jean Golding Institute and the Digital Cultures and Methods Cluster at the University of Bristol are hosting a full-day workshop in partnership with Tableau. The workshop is free of charge, but you must sign up as spaces are limited. Only available for staff and students at the University of Bristol.

Working group on data visualisation: good and bad practices in data vis 

Tuesday 26^th September 2017, Beacon House Seminar room,  1- 2 pm

We’d like to invite you to the first bring-your-own-lunch meeting of a UoB data visualisation working group. In this meeting we will focus on good and bad practices in data visualisation.

The “Data visualisation” working group is interested in representing large scale data in innovative ways: i.e. more than just a graph! There will also be time scheduled to identify the future directions and needs of the group, and we hope to get an idea of who may be willing to lead one or more sessions (but you are also more than welcome to attend if you are not comfortable/willing to lead a session).

This session will be led by Harriet Mills and Bobby Stuijfzand and we are currently collecting materials (i.e. good and bad visualisations) as input for discussion during the meeting. If you are aware of any good (or bad!) data visualisations, please do email them to bg.stuijfzand@bristol.ac.uk

The working group is supported by the JGI.

Improving health through better use of data, organised by the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute and Bristol Health Partners

Tuesday 19 September, 1-4:30 pm, Venue TBC in central Bristol

Bristol Health Partners and the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute are creating a new resource, a Health Data Inventory. For the first time, this will provide an easy way to understand what information is available for research in our region and where it’s held. Bristol is the first region to develop such a tool and this is your chance to define how this tool should be used. This workshop will introduce the Health Data Inventory, pilot funding will be made available by the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for UoB researchers to develop high quality pilot projects using these data.   For more information please email oliver.watson@bristol.ac.uk. Please share with your networks. 

Funding 

EPSRC Global Challenges Research Fund Institutional Sponsorship 2017 

Deadline 21^st August 2017

EPSRC has allocated the University of Bristol £215K of institutional sponsorship to support research projects and knowledge exchange activities that are compliant with the Official Development Assistance (ODA) guidelines.

For more information contact vicki.marshall@bristol.ac.uk.

University Strategic Research Fund

Up to £30K

Deadline 5 pm 18th August 2017

GW4 Initiator and Accelerator Fund

Deadline 31^st October 2017

Initiator fund: up to £20K

Accelerator fund: £20-75K

The panel wishes to particularly encourage applications with a focus on Global Challenges Research Fund and Industrial Challenge Strategy Fund.

STFC GCRF Foundation Awards Call

Deadline 4 pm on 5^th September 2017, slides of the information day are available now

Funding available for:

seed corn projects (<£30K, < 6 months) early stage partnership

small projects (<£100K, <12 months) aimed at exploring the needs of LMICs, building collaborations

larger projects (>£100K, <24 months) where collaborative and proven approaches have been established

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a Thursday in the Greenbank, a bohemian pub in Easton, Bristol. Upstairs, people have gathered to discuss ‘the rise of data science’ at one of the monthly Science Cafés run by the local branch of the British Science Association – places where, after a short talk from a scientific expert, the floor is given to attendees to discuss the issues arising when science meets society. Today, the guest is Dr Bobby Stuijfzand, data scientist at the Jean Golding Institute, and issues arising range from the ownership of health records to the existence of free will.

How data changed the last decade

Bobby begins by explaining his role: working with people who need things done with their data, and handling other people’s problems. This broadens out neatly into a working definition of data science – ‘methods of learning from data and finding patterns’. But why is it relevant now?

He shows a photo of a 2017 concert and asks us to reflect on the changes since 2007. Diverse answers reveal some of the different motivations of audience members for coming: some comment that you have to sign in to everything these days, others that it would have been unthinkable for a president to be constantly posting on social media. I add that in 2007, “I didn’t need to be on Facebook to get invited to parties”.

The photo prompts Bobby to observe that we previously didn’t have such a sea of screens at events; nor was it weird to leave the house without a smartphone. Fitbits were yet to come. Streaming services such as Netflix have shifted the habits of viewers. In 2007 Bittorrent, the peer-to-peer sharing network used for transferring large files, many of which are pirated media, took up 25% of US internet traffic. Now legal, easy alternatives are available on demand, that’s down to 4%. While the audience responses were obviously shaped in this direction by the topic of the event, it can certainly be argued that many of the changes in the last decade come from data – they are either enabled by it, like the Fitbit, or generate it, like the indexing and recommendations provided by Netflix.

Seeing patterns in data

Bobby used his own research on eye tracking as an illustration of how data science proceeds. To begin with, you gather raw observations, such as where people’s eyes focus and for how long while completing different reading tasks. Then you come up with some ways to describe overall characteristics of this data, such as the average length of time fixating on a single point or the distance that the gaze travels before fixating again. Computer scientists might call these features, while statisticians and psychologists think of these as variables. By comparing these variables for different large groups of raw observations (data sets), you can work out which characteristics are different between groups – perhaps what people are reading or what task they are doing. Fitting mathematical descriptions to these characteristics lets you predict how they will vary if you were to collect more and more data. Finally, with these models, computers are trained to make predictions about which group new data is likely to be in based on these findings.

By taking specific observations, measuring features, looking for group differences, polishing those into mathematical predictions, and applying them with computers, a lot of complicated systems can be built. This was what Bobby handed over to the audience, with a challenge: knowing the basics ideas of data science, and what has changed since 2007, what do you think 2027 will be like? What will the future look like, and how will data science have changed it?

From annoyances to the singularity: the next decade in data

Much discussion followed, ably assisted by the selection of drinks available. Some people foresaw widespread drone surveillance and blackmail, particularly until the law caught up; some thought that supply and demand for shops and retailers would be synced up much more closely, so there would hardly ever be a run on products. Others foresaw that Artificial Intelligence (AI) would take over a lot of menial tasks.

In more extreme cases, one participant was anticipating the Singularity (an event where an AI attains sufficient intelligence that it can make itself better and better, eventually gaining the ability to do almost anything and bend the world to its will – jokingly referred to as ‘the nerd rapture’) with ‘terror and excitement’, depending on which corporation makes it happen. With the ability to model everything, someone else asked, was there any free will left?

After a brief segue into the non-deterministic nature of the quantum world and the limitations of theoretical sets of mathematical axioms, things got a little more macroscopic and tangible.

“I hope that things will become less annoying”, said a man in the middle of the room. He went on: “Adverts track what you’re looking at online – but if you’ve just bought a sofa, why would they show you an advert for a sofa? It’s in its infancy. As we learn to better use it, it’s going to become more targeted. Things are still being learned and they will become more sensible and more focused and more elegant.”

There were concerns over the resources needed to generate exponentially increasing processing power, including raw materials and rare metals. But again some hope. Another participant anticipated fewer social problems: for example, as large systems figure out why crops fail and have less famine. In the case of psychological issues, he cited work looking at the emotions of people on social networks and scanning for potential terrorists, as reasons to be hopeful.

Not everyone shared this optimism though, as a woman at the front opined:

“They know so much about you. If you do something different to what whoever’s controlling society wants you to do, they can shut you down at source.” Clearly there are some concerns about the power of data and governments.

What do we want our data to do for us?

Bobby noted that with many of these observations, the outcome depends on who is controlling the data. “It’s a technology that can be used for good or ill. We give our data out – what do we get from it?”

The same technology that enables Gmail to show you targeted ads based on the content of your email is what allows them to filter out spam, a direct benefit for users. Recently, Google Deepmind was given access to 1.6million NHS patient records, and five years of historical data, with the aim of predicting acute kidney failure – is this enough of a benefit to justify handing over this data? Actually, the UK Information Commission (ICO) ruled that the hospital did not do enough to protect the privacy of patients.

Google maps, Spotify and Open Data Bristol are all examples of initiatives that offer access to data, but they need to be accessed using an API (Advanced Programming Interface). So there is a way to get back things from your data, but only if you program. So, Bobby asked the room, if we could make a platform to use our own data, what would you want?

A key theme was access to patient records: specifically the ability to access your own information, be informed about what is going on and join it up across services. But while people wanted their information shared to give the best care available, they still wanted their privacy protected. There were also concerns about who would and wouldn’t have the ability to access their own records, the bias created by people opting out of sharing, and the political use that could be made of this.

One contributor raised the issue of legislation and that this would provide some guidance. “The legal frameworks that sit around this don’t really exist and that’s a problem. It doesn’t exist because it happened comparatively quickly, so there aren’t laws that are up to date with current collection and distribution methods. That will address a lot of concerns that people have about misuse of their data and it falling into the wrong hands.”

Bobby spoke from his own experience: “We used to have statisticians at the ONS [Office of National Statistics] who had a background in social sciences. Now our data scientists [the favoured term at the moment] tend to have more of a computer scientist/engineering background and have less of a basis in ethical and legal considerations…”

“Speaking as an engineer, I agree we often lack an ethical framework”, I interrupted.

And the concern about the potential downsides of data didn’t end at other people having information about you, as the idea of finding out something you might not want to know was raised. Sometimes having too much knowledge is a problem.

As the event wound to a close, the night was rounded off by the very British concern that:

“If all the data on ancestry was available there would be no plots for Midsomer Murders.”

A terrifying future indeed.

There were many questions about data science, not limited to the topic of data processing but also spilling out into the many areas it touches, such as legislation, ethics, ease of access of records, what is possible with internet-enabled technology, and the role of government and corporations. Discussions about such topics are therefore going to be sprawling – it seems there’s plenty of material for follow up conversations on all these aspects and more.

_________________

Science Cafés are run regularly by the Bristol and Bath branch of the British Science Association, and we are grateful to Alina Udall and Bob Foster for their work organising. More information on the concept, upcoming science cafes and other events run by the organisation can be found here: https://bristolbathsci.org.uk/

The Jean Golding Institute organises public and research events to support research collaborations, visit our events page for more information and follow us on twitter @JGIBristol

Blog post by Kate Oliver, PhD student at the University of Bristol and freelance science writer.

 

In the early nineties, more than 14,000 pregnant women enrolled into ALSPAC, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children – known to its friends as ‘Children of the 90s’. Every year for over two decades, these parents and children have provided all kinds of information to researchers to create a dataset unique in the world. Combining hundreds of different elements, including biological samples, environmental measures, clinical assessments, and key life events, it’s an astoundingly detailed picture of human development which continues to yield surprises. Professor Jean Golding OBE, who founded the study, says of her unprecedented project:

“When we started ALSPAC, they asked why we collected so many participants. Later, they asked why we collected so few!”

Professor Golding had to convince funders, scientists, and other epidemiologists of the benefits of a broad approach with open-ended questions, rather than the focused approach favoured at the time. When asked how she was able to push through these concepts in the face of critics, she says lightly: “Oh, they thought I was mad for at least 20 years – it made me more determined!” She mentions notable support from the vice-chancellor of the University of Bristol at the time, who was a mathematician and statistician, and “really got it”.

The study participants, on the other hand, she says, ‘understood it all, and really bought into it’. Jean explained to the cohort their aims – “We were going to look with fresh eyes, on the basis that we actually didn’t know what were the appropriate ways to make children healthy” – and asked for their contribution to this joint effort.

This is an activity that of course requires trust, and imposes a duty on the researchers towards the participants. Jean says: “I think you have to be extremely careful. As long as the study parents and participants trust you – that is a burden, you have got to get it right. If they don’t trust you, you have to get it right too, but it’s not so damaging. If they lose trust in you, they lose trust in the future. That would be really disastrous.”

Some of her understanding of the participants’ concerns come from her own experience. Her own grandson, born, conveniently, two years before the start of the study, was used as a ‘guinea pig’ for some of the assessments which ALSPAC families would complete.

In a novel approach, ALSPAC carers and babies were asked to report their lives and habits, such as smoking, and also to undergo assessments, such as language ability, and to give biological samples. The last two elements were made at the suggestion of Professor Golding’s long-term collaborator, Professor Marcus Pembrey (also of the University of Bristol), who Golding says made sure the right data was collected at the right times. This has enabled geneticists to use the dataset to look at how the genetic code changes in response to environmental conditions – showing the prescience of the study, since the samples were stored long before the technology to examine this information efficiently existed. Jean describes this modestly as another example of her “picking up people’s ideas and putting them into practice.”

Data collected on the ‘Children of the Nineties’ includes such categories as (chosen at random as an illustration): physical activity levels of children, blood samples from everyone, IQ scores, dietary reports, 3D face scans, ball skills, the number of days pubescent girls experienced menstrual cramps, measure of air pollution exposure in year-old babies, short term memory in four year olds, waist circumference, the smoking habits of the ALSPAC mothers’ mothers, and amount of screen-time for the grandchildren of the original pregnant participants (the children of children of the 90s, or COCO90s). It’s a dizzying amount of data.

The ALSPAC findings have yielded over 1,500 publications so far, on topics ranging  from the increased risk of obesity in children whose grandparents smoked, the relationship between lead levels in blood and SAT results, to the non-correlation of cat ownership with psychosis[could substitute if wanted]. However, many relationships remain to be explored.

Jean is currently particularly interested in early pregnancy and how that affects the child and its development into early adulthood. She describes with engagement an illustrative issue; the benefits of seafood for the developing brain weighed against concerns around the accumulation of heavy metals. With access to information about trace metals in the blood, the diet of a pregnant mother and her child, and the child’s developmental progress, the epidemiological team at ALSPAC have the pieces to make a recommendation. Jean’s analyses, with colleagues, suggest that there are no harmful effects from mercury if the mother eats fish, while if she doesn’t eat fish, there is some indication that there is harm to the child.

However, translating these findings into policy proves difficult, and current advice on this one issue lags behind the latest work. I ask if she has any ideas for improving uptake of such research outputs, and she replies cheerfully: “All we can do is batter away!” Cod (or a non-endangered alternative) and chips all round, then.

Current work for Professor Golding includes ongoing work with the geneticist, Professor Pembrey, looking at transgenerational effects – not just in the genome, the sum of the DNA information in an individual, but the epigenome, the DNA and the chemical changes modifying how it interacts. Their work so far shows that the habits, such as smoking, in the mothers of the cohort pregnant in ‘91 affect the adolescence of their babies – that is, the habits of the grandmothers are visited upon their grandchildren. In this case, the team have identified various effects including associations with obesity and cognition.

In the future, Professor Golding is excited about looking into the effects of stress on development through the generations, perhaps from historical tragedies such as famine or personal ones such as bereavement. Another interesting possibility is to extend the study a generation further, since some of the children from the original cohort are having children. But given that not all the cohort are taking that step, another option is linking through older records to consider the life histories of great-grandparents of the contributors. Could it be possible to see traces of a childhood in the 1930s workhouse in their 21st century great-grandchild?

There seems to be no end to the data that can be collected about a human life, or the questions that can be asked about it. Interviews with participants reveal that, on the whole, they were happy to contribute all sorts of personal information, and contribute their time, as long as the data is used. From the moment I meet her, Jean is clear that her job is to make sure that the efforts of the participants of the ALSPAC study, their children, and now grandchildren, are used to fulfil her promise to them two decades ago: to find out how to make people more healthy.

Find out more about Professor Jean Golding’s career, and her tips for a successful collaboration and data investigation, in the first blogpost in this series.

Written by Kate Oliver, PhD student at the University of Bristol and freelance science writer. With thanks to Professor Jean Golding for a fascinating conversation!