KPMG and Imperial College have announced a new partnership to make the UK a world leader in data science.
The professional services firm will invest £20m into the partnership to create the ‘KPMG Centre for Advanced Business Analytics‘ which will develop new tools and methods for big data analysis.
It is hoped the centre will give UK businesses the competitive edge over international competitors as it focuses on business capital, growth, operation, people and resilience.
New generation of data scientists
Researchers from Imperial College Business School will lead the project as part of the College’s Data Science Institute.
Over the course of the eight year project, they expect 800 PhD students to be trained as data scientists.
David Willets MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science, said that this is a great example of national research becoming more public.
It’s encouraging to see Imperial College London and KPMG teaming up on this new partnership.
It will both accelerate the speed in which data based research is carried out and the time it takes to commercialise new ideas into everyday practice benefiting UK businesses.
The implications of big data
The benefits of big data can manifest themselves in a number of different ways.
It can help retailers better understand consumer behaviour, a practice already exercised by many of the UK businesses. It can also be used by banks to predict fraud.
Alwin Magimay, KPMG UK Head of Digital and Analytics, explained:
The fact is that one in five of the UK’s largest companies now measure the value of corporate data on their balance sheets.
Businesses realise that finding better ways of analysing data is the key to unlocking profitability and we hope to help them unleash new waves of productivity, growth and innovation.