Vision, Objectives and Global Context

Our vision

The vision for Spatial Analytics and Modelling (SAM) at Newcastle is to forge a more connected and trans-disciplinary spatial science.

This new spatial science will be able to provide holistic and integrated understanding and ability to manage complex phenomena in space and time. It will encompass social, economic, engineering, environmental and technical issues.

The aim is to build and establish a world-class research team in spatial analytics and modelling at Newcastle University. This new research group shows the value of collaboration between the faculties of Humanities, Arts and Social Science (HASS) and Science, Agriculture and Engineering (SAgE).

Investment

Targeted investment in spatial analytics and modelling is strategically important to enable a step change in the capacity, quality and international reach of research in this area at Newcastle. This £2m investment will bring together four chairs to connect:

• Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies and Geography
• Architecture and Planning
• Engineering
• Mathematics and Statistics

The SAM team will develop the next generation of computational spatio-temporal analytics, models and visualisation techniques required to tackle trans-disciplinary global challenges. This will be achieved through close collaboration with the internationally renowned expertise of:

• Computing Science
• the Digital Institute
• a new £30m National Institute for Smart Data Innovation (NISDI)

Our objectives

Our objectives build on the strong Research Excellence Framework (REF) performances and international reputations of researchers in the collaborating academic units.

Expertise

We will attract and embed a team of world-leading and internationally renowned researchers in spatial analytics and modelling. 

This team will integrate, connect and catalyse existing strengths and activities in this area within:

• Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies and Geography
• Architecture and Planning
• Engineering
• Mathematics and Statistics
• Computing Science
• the Digital Institutethe Institute for Sustainability
• Marine Sciences and Technology

Our published outputs will be in high quality, 3* and 4* publications.

Collaboration

We will engage and collaborate effectively with relevant external stakeholders, for example:

• the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• the EU
• UK national and local government department and agencies
• private sector organisations

This will enable us to generate research income, capture policy influence and impact from the team's research.

Our work will promote and enable future-oriented trans-disciplinary research in spatial analytics and modelling within the University and across its private, public and civic partner networks. We will create opportunities for commercial spin-offs.

Income and investment

We will generate high quality 'blue chip' research income.

The research group will add value to the University's major investments in facilities and staff. These include:

• the National Institute for Smart Data Innovation
• Science Central's Urban Sciences building, Urban Observatory and Decision Theatre
• the Neptune National Centre for Subsea and Offshore Engineering
• Professor of Visualisation, Digital Institute
• posts in Engineering
• big data posts in Marine Sciences and Technology

Global context

Developing more holistic and integrated understandings of spatial science is one of the great societal and intellectual challenges of the 21st century.

How we map, explain and attempt to shape relations and interactions between flows of people, their activities, their ecological footprints and infrastructural service demands will have a fundamental bearing on the prosperity, quality of life and wellbeing of people and places across the world.

The conceptual, theoretical and analytical challenges of developing a more integrated and trans-disciplinary spatial science are substantive.

New sources of data

Global trends towards 'big data' and 'open data' are generating a torrent of data from multiple and increasingly interconnected sources:

• the internet
• mobile phones
• social media
• observation stations
• GPS devices
• crowd-sourced data
• remote sensing, for example satellites and seismic monitoring

The volume, velocity, variety and value of such data are unprecedented.

Many of these new sources of data open up the vast potential of analysing, modelling and visualising the spatial and temporal dimensions of complex issues. We can now do this with unprecedented accuracy and precision at a range of geographical scales, including the:

• micro/individual
• household
• neighbourhood
• regional
• national
• global

What have been passive and previously under-utilised data sets collected by new 'smart' technologies raise extensive and exciting possibilities for their exploration, integration and activation:

• underpinning the search for more holistic understandings
• identifying new research issues and problems
• developing new analytical, modelling and visualisation tools and applications
• enabling the formulation and confrontation of novel and formerly unreachable research questions

This cross-fertilisation is opening up exciting opportunities for trans-disciplinary research. Knowledge exchange, collaboration and policy applications are also opening up on a local and global scale.

High profile research

The field is fast expanding and globally high profile. This is a result of the growing role and convergence of the social sciences and geosciences in providing analysis and evidence relevant for policy and wider society.

Urgent interest is manifest in large research funding initiatives from blue chip sources such as the EU and Research Councils UK. There are also policy concerns, with big data identified as one of the UK government's eight great technologies.