Data-Intensive Research: Actions to make better use of Data for Research

Today’s challenges demand the best quality decisions that can be achieved. The growing wealth of available data should be used to improve those decisions. Data are the catalysts in research, engineering and diagnosis. Data fuel analysis to produce key evidence and supply the information for compelling communication. Data connect computational systems and capture the work of large collaborative endeavours.

Data should be used fluently in research, investigation, planning and policy formulation to equip those responsible with the necessary information, knowledge and wisdom. The present cornucopia of data is under-exploited. Effort and resources should be rallied to deliver a data-use initiative that harnesses the potential of data by delivering a new focus and capability.

The data-use initiative will:

• increase the impact of research on the quality of decisions, by
• enabling all researchers to analyse an order of magnitude more data without intermediaries
• with much improved methods to “go the last mile” to achieve influence.

An over-riding requirement is to engage the next generation of talented minds in the creative pro- cesses of distilling information from data, establishing knowledge and developing wisdom.