Dr Simon Hodson, Executive Director of the Committee on Data of the International Science Council (CODATA), who will discuss the benefits of the digital revolution and data integration from a global perspective.

OVERVIEW

Data for the planet: driving solutions for resilient cities, disaster risk reduction and infectious diseases

The digital revolution offers profound opportunities for science to discover hitherto unsuspected patterns and relationships in nature and society, on scales from the nanoscale to the cosmic, from local health systems to global sustainability. It has created the potential for the disciplines of science to achieve more holistic understanding of the complexity that underlies the challenges that confront humanity by exposing their deep structure through the integration of data across relevant disciplines.

The International Science Council's (ISC) Data Integration Project is tackling how integrating diverse data from globally distributed sources can help to combat infectious diseases, natural disasters and to build resilient and adaptive cities, and how it can tie these solutions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The project is preparing the ground for a major ISC Committee on Data (CODATA) initiative to advance ‘data-driven interdisciplinarity' to address global challenges.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Simon Hodson, Executive Director, Committee on Data of the International Science Council (CODATA)

Simon is an expert on data policy issues and research data management. As part of his CODATA role, he is closely involved in a CODATA initiative to improve the coordination of standards for data integration and interoperability for interdisciplinary research and in the coordination of the CODATA Data Policy Committee. Simon Hodson has been Executive Director of CODATA since August 2013.

He has contributed to influential reports on Current Best Practice for Research Data Management Policies and to the Science International Accord on Open Data in a Big Data World. Most recently he chaired the European Commission’s Expert Group on FAIR Data which produced the report Turning FAIR into Reality. He also leads or participants in numerous projects, working groups and steering groups, including the following:

• Project Director, African Open Science Platform Project
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of CESSDA ERIC, the European data infrastructure for the social sciences.
• Co-chair (2015-2018) of the GEO Data Sharing Working Group
• Co-chair of the OECD Global Science Forum and CODATA Project on Sustainable Business Models for Research Data Repositories
• Member of the Board of Directors of the Dryad Data Repository (2012-2018).