Influencing public policy
We’re leaders in applying scientific advances to public policy, health and wellbeing. We help our public sector partners develop their data science and analytics skills so they can tackle complex data challenges.
Chief Scientific Adviser to Essex County Council
We’re the first university in the UK to appoint a Chief Scientific Adviser to a local government authority. Professor Alex Quiroz-Flores, Reader at the Department of Government and Chief Scientific Adviser for IADS, uses data to help Essex County Council reshape public policy and service delivery.
Essex County Council is one of England’s largest local authorities. As Chief Scientific Adviser, Alex is transforming the way public services are being delivered by embedding data science into government decision making.
Catalyst Project (Essex County Council and Suffolk County Council)
The Catalyst Project aimed to helped Essex County Council and Suffolk County Council to improve services for vulnerable people – by using our expertise in data analytics and cutting-edge scientific methods to assess risks and evaluate the impact of their initiatives and target services for vulnerable people.
Essex Centre for Data Analytics (Essex County Council and Essex Police)
Through the innovative Essex Centre for Data Analytics (ECDA) Essex Police, the University and Essex County Council have joined together to share their data, knowledge and skills.
The ECDA uses data from multiple partners, to understand problems affecting the people of Essex by using the talent of our University researchers and government analysts to find insight and knowledge in their data. The ambition is to reduce harm, provide better services and to protect the most vulnerable people in the community.
Data analytics to inform policymaking
Since 2019, we’ve partnered with the Open Innovation Team (OIT), which fosters links between government departments and academics to develop analysis and ideas in key policy areas.
As part of this collaboration, our data science and artificial intelligence experts, with the Chief Scientific Adviser, worked with the OIT to experiment with how data analytics and insight from data can be used in government to maximize impact and inform policymaking.