Industry hails Turing big data fund

The direct marketing industry has welcomed Government plans to offer £42m in funds to set up a new institute – named after WW2 codebreaker and computer pioneer and Alan Turing – to exploit the rise of big data.
Announced in yesterday’s Budget, the institute will be run by either a university and other interested party, with a bidding process expected within the next few months.
In a note to DMA members about the Budget, director of public affairs Caroline Roberts claimed the investment was one of the few highlights for direct marketing in Chancellor George Osborne’s speech.
Meanwhile Alwin Magimay, UK head of digital and analytics at KPMG, said: “This is really welcome news for the UK. Data scientists are what computer programmers were to the UK economy in the Nineties. We as a nation need to industrialise this discipline to ensure that British business can prosper from understanding the potential of the data and turn it into a competitive business advantage.
“The investment of £42m is a powerful signal to businesses, academic institutions and investors to sit up and realise that big data isn’t just a term coined by the technology world but that it presents a real opportunity for UK business to gain value from the abundance of data being created in a digital and connected world.
And Deloitte Analytics leader Carl Bates added: “Data plays an incredible part in helping organisations to find new areas of growth, efficiency and competitiveness. It ensures the right people have access to the right information at the right time to make the right decisions.
“Funding for the Alan Turing Institute will help promote new and valuable data research, but it shouldn’t stop there. Big data concepts need to be embedded in the education system so that we are training the next generation of data scientists.”

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