Urban Big Data Centre

The Urban Big Data Centre promotes the use of big data and innovative research methods to improve social, economic and environmental well-being in cities.

We deliver analyses which have demonstrable impacts on public policy, society and industry. We do this by publishing world-leading research in the social sciences and other disciplines, but also by working closely with partners from government, industry and the third sector. UBDC’s key research strands are Urban Impacts of COVID-19; Education and labour markets; Housing and neighbourhoods; Transport and mobility; Urban governance; Urban Sensing & Analytics; Urban Sustainability and Participation.

We work to enhance the quality of urban big data and methods for urban analytics to support the work of others. We provide access to a wide variety of big data through our data service. But we also provide critical analysis of the value of these for understanding urban conditions.

We offer a centre-of-excellence for teaching and capacity building in urban big data and urban analytics. We run two MSc programmes, have an active community of PhD researchers and provide numerous short courses.