Data driven life science skills development - equipping society for the future

我们的目标是开发和举办讲习班，帮助学术界、工业界和整个社会的卫生和生物科学研究人员在使用他们的数据时既有能力又有信心。为什么健康和生物科学研究人员需要数据科学培训由于新技术可以同时测量细胞中数千种不同的分子成分，生物和医学研究在过去30年中发生了根本性的变化。例如，现在测量整个人类基因组，构成活细胞的所有蛋白质，或土壤样本中所有微生物的DNA都是常规的。所有这些都产生了大量的数据，这些数据以不同的格式出现，通常出现在不同的时间和地点。因此，今天所有的生物学研究人员都需要善于管理和分析数据——这不再是专家的职权范围。这不仅仅是英国面临的挑战：国际研究也显示出同样的趋势。对数据科学培训的需求远远超过供应。生命科学产业同样依赖于生物科学和健康数据，包括制药商、诊断提供商、疫苗开发商以及农业和环境服务提供商。精准医疗（为患者量身定制药物）和精准农业（定制作物管理）的新举措依赖于对高质量数据的获取和准确解释。工业、政府和社会中的许多职业都需要良好的数据管理和分析技能。重要的是，公众需要对数据和数据密集型研究有信心——为了信任科学过程，为了利用数据为科学和社会带来的好处。研究人员之间的数据共享（开放获取数据）对于科学进步、所有重要的可重复性以及为公共资助的研究获得最佳投资价值都很重要。在这样一个生物科学和健康的数据密集型环境中，重要的是每个人——无论他们的职业阶段或角色——都可以管理、分析、存储和共享他们的数据。这就是我们希望通过这个项目实现的目标。我们将培训重点放在我们知道健康和生物科学研究人员特别需要的领域。-分析数据-使用机器学习等现代方法分析大型复杂数据集需要良好的统计学基础。-数据管理-了解如何在虚拟“存储”空间中安全地移动数据，以获取信息。—数据共享—理解并遵守FAIR原则（可查找-可访问-可互操作-可复制），确保数据的开放访问。-设计可移植的分析-编写复杂的分析工作流程的方式，很容易在不同的计算系统之间转移，所以其他研究人员也可以使用它们。我们将使用一个名为The Carpentries的成熟社区平台来提供这些培训研讨会（在线）。这是一个包容性的开放获取平台，用于培训人们的数据和编码技能，并鼓励学习者随着自己的专业知识的发展，首先成为帮助者，然后成为培训师。开放获取的教学材料意味着每次研讨会都可以提出小的改进建议，从而导致质量的不断提高。这也意味着任何有网络连接的人都可以使用这些材料进行自学，因此开发这些材料的工作具有更广泛的影响。爱丁堡拥有英国最大的木工分支机构，该机构热衷于扩大其培训范围。我们的项目将帮助提升整个英国的数据技能，并在所有职业阶段和行业培养越来越多的自信的从业者。这将有助于满足学术界和工业界对精通数据的健康和生物科学研究人员日益增长的需求。

Executive summaryWe aim to develop and deliver workshops that help health and bioscience researchers - in academia, industry and society as a whole - to be both competent and confident in working with their data.Why health and bioscience researchers need data science trainingBiological and medical research has changed radically in the last 30 years due to new technologies that measure thousands of different molecular components in cells at the same time. For example, it is now routine to measure entire human genomes, all the proteins making up living cells, or DNA from all the microbes in a sample of soil. All this generates huge amounts of data that come in different formats and often at different times and places. So, today all biological researchers need to be good at managing and analyzing data - it is no longer the remit of the specialist. This is not just a UK challenge: international studies show the same trend. The demand for data science training far outstrips supply.Life science industries are equally dependent on bioscience and health data, across pharmaceutical manufacturers, diagnostic providers, vaccine developers, and agricultural and environmental service providers. New moves towards precision medicine (drugs tailored to the patient) and precision agriculture (tailoring crop management) depend on access to, and accurate interpretation of, high quality data. Many careers in industry, government and society need good data management and analysis skills.Importantly, the public needs confidence in data and data intensive research - for trust in the scientific process and for harnessing the benefits of data for science and society. Data sharing (Open Access Data) between researchers is important for scientific progress, for all-important reproducibility, and to derive best value for investment in publicly funded research.In such a data-intensive environment for bioscience and health, it's important that everyone - whatever their career stage or role - can manage, analyse, store and share their data. This is what we hope to achieve through this project.What we plan to doWe have focused training on areas where we know there is a particular need among health and bioscience researchers. - Analyzing data - A good grounding in statistics is needed to analyze large and complex data sets, using modern methods such as machine learning. - Managing data - Driving an understanding of how to move data securely around virtual 'storage' spaces in ways that information can be retrieved. - Sharing data - Understanding and adhering to the FAIR principles (Findable-Accessible-Interoperable-Reproducible) ensures open access to data. - Designing portable analysis - Writing complex analysis workflows in a manner that is easily transferred between different computing systems, so other researchers can use them too.We will deliver these training workshops (online) using a well-established community platform called The Carpentries. This is an inclusive open-access platform that trains people in data and coding skills and encourages learners to become first helpers, and then trainers, as their own expertise develops. Open-access teaching materials mean that small improvements can be suggested every time a workshop is delivered, leading to a constant improvement in quality. It also means that anyone with an internet connection can use the materials for self-study, so work put into developing materials has wider impact. Edinburgh has the largest Carpentries affiliate in the UK, which is keen to extend the reach of its training.Our programme will help level-up data skills across the UK and develop a growing cohort of confident practitioners across all career stages and industries. This will help meet the growing demand for data-savvy health and bioscience researchers in academia and industry.