Department Vision

Vision

The Department is a national and international centre of excellence for disciplines concerned with generating knowledge through the advanced use of data to support decision-making processes. This position is underpinned by a strong scientific and educational framework, complemented by technology transfer and social impact activities. However, recent developments in Data Science have highlighted significant limitations in certain analytical and algorithmic approaches that focus primarily on prediction. In particular, insufficient attention to data quality, the limited reproducibility and generalisability of results, and the lack of a sound causal basis undermine their effectiveness as decision-support tools and diminish their relevance to society.

The 2023–2027 Excellence Project, ReDS (Rethinking Data Science), aims to address these challenges systematically by strengthening research and education at the international level. Its strategic objective is to consolidate DISIA’s role as a hub for causal analysis and the statistical analysis of complex data, while contributing to the advanced education of Data Scientists capable of working in highly complex, interdisciplinary settings. The planned research activities focus on developing innovative statistical methods for causal inference and complex data analysis, designed as effective and interpretable decision-making tools with sound foundations in prediction and uncertainty quantification. These tools will be applicable to fields of major scientific and societal importance—including demography, the social sciences, economics, medicine and epidemiology—ensuring relevance, transferability and impact.

In the area of education, the primary objective is to enhance the Department’s provision of advanced, high-quality programmes, with particular emphasis on educating outstanding early-career researchers. The 2023–2027 Excellence Project provides the framework through which the Department pursues its knowledge-transfer objectives, actively contributing to innovation and development within its economic and social environment. In this context, the Department encourages the creation of collaborative networks, both within and beyond academia, aimed at enhancing project development expertise and promoting continuing education.

The Department’s interdisciplinary approach has recently found significant expression in the establishment of the National PhD Programme in Life Course Research, which promotes the analysis of life-course trajectories and significant events from a holistic and transdisciplinary perspective. Bringing together expertise from the biomedical, psychological and socio-demographic fields, the programme aims to educate a new generation of highly qualified researchers through an evidence-based curriculum, with a strong emphasis on quantitative methods and data analysis.