Professor Philip Nolan:

The CRT programme that Professor Gleeson runs is called foundations of data science. We will need two types. One is foundational or the very basic research and skills that have a very broad range of applications, including things as broad as advanced materials and immunology. These are the very basics of future applications. There are then applications areas that are very likely to be focused on the digital and green transition. These include energy systems, food systems, biosciences, biodiversity and those kind of things. We are doing a capacity analysis and needs analysis in that regard. That is the basis on which those other areas will be founded.

The one other thing I advocate for relates to there just not being enough work on societal innovation and adoption of new technologies. How do we use these things? This includes all those areas around regulation, privacy and so on. Those are also amenable to doctoral study. Many of the solutions Europe is implementing in these areas arose out of research investigations conducted when these issues were just coming over the horizon. I argue very strongly for a range of doctoral research on what might be called socio-technical problems, or the interface between technology and society.