About us

Our purpose

We apply data science, and build skills, for public good across the UK and internationally.

Our mission

We work at the frontier of data science and AI – building skills and applying tools, methods and practices – to create new understanding and improve decision-making for public good.

We define data science as:

Applying the tools, methods and practices of the digital and data age to create new understanding and improve decision-making.

Our goals

The goals of the ONS Data Science Campus are to:

  • investigate the use of new data sources, including administrative data and big data for public good
  • help build data science capability for the benefit of the UK.

A new generation of tools and technologies is being used to exploit the growth and availability of these new data sources and innovative methods to provide rich informed measurement and analyses on the economy, the global environment and wider society.

The Data Science Campus was established within the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2017 with a core of well-qualified professionals, involving a strong network of third party participants in the mission of the Campus. We have set up a series of data projects that provide insight into key policy themes.

We created new learning and development pathways in data science at a range of different levels from Level 4 Apprenticeships to providing support for PhDs and post-doctoral projects.

In 2019 we launched a joint team with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) to apply data science to global public good.

We are located at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Newport, South Wales office. We also have offices in London, Titchfield, Darlington and a data science hub in the FCDO’s office in East Kilbride.