Connecting Data with Community at London Data Week

Introducing UCL's Data-Empowered Societies (DES) theme, Professor Allison Littlejohn - Pro-Vice Provost for DES (a role she shares with Professor James Hetherington) - explained what UCL Grand Challenges has been doing to support impactful work across the University - and beyond - to create a society that is better empowered by data. Collaborations with innovation districts like the Knowledge Quarter are key to enabling our mission to harness cross-sector expertise.

The evening showcased how UCL led interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships can solve global challenges by empowering communities with data - using principles of fairness, inclusion, community participation, and societal benefits.

Guests gained insight into this impactful work through a series of ‘lightning talks’ delivered by recent grant recipients from the programme:

Lightning talks

Interactive Citizen Science for Data-Empowered Decision Making: developing solutions for the growing burden of plastic waste

• Presenter: Aarathi Prasad (Genetics, Evolution & Environment)

Empowering Inuit communities to map their own land

• Presenter: Michel Tsamados (Earth Sciences)

Mapping the unseen: recovering living heritage and supporting community-led relocation through data-driven approaches

• Presenter:
  • Cassidy Johnson – Bartlett Development Planning Unit
  • Thaisa Comelli – Department for Risk and Disaster Reduction

Incorporating Indigenous Ecological Knowledge in AI-assisted Bioacoustic Data Analysis for Biodiversity Monitoring

• Presenter:
  • Raffaella Fryer-Moreira (Anthropology)

Data-Empowered Evacuation: Co-Designing Inclusive Emergency Response System with Disabled People and Fire Rescue Services

• Presenter:
  • Anna Landre (Computer Science)
  • Tigmanshu Bhatnagar (Computer Science)

Data and Lived Experience: Evaluation of Newham’s ‘People Powered Places’ Participatory Budgeting Programme

• Presenter:
  • Nidhi Chaudhary – UCL Co-Design Lab / STEaPP ·
  • Kieren Reed – UCL Art Futures / Slade

Professor Littlejohn reflected on the importance of these projects (which are part of a cohort of 17 ‘small grant’ projects) and their community-centric approach:

“UCL is committed to working with communities around the world to ensure data, AI and compute are used in ways that are driven by and empower humans. These projects presented at the KQ Social emphasise how digital data can be used to empower communities, by supporting them to identify the challenges they face, track progress, and make informed decisions. Many of our partners are indigenous communities that sometimes are under-represented. By working in partnership with these communities, UCL colleagues are helping to drive forward equitable change 

Stay in touch

UCL colleagues interested in the Data Empowered Societies programme are encouraged to join our internal Teams community here – stay up to date with our funding opportunities and events.

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