KPMG is continuing to splash the cash in the data and analytics industry by signing a £20m partnership with Imperial College London to help turn the UK into a global leader in big data.
The project, which has led to the creation of the “KPMG Centre for Advanced Business Analytics” at the college, will focus on five key areas – analysis of business capital, growth opportunities, people, operations and resilience.
KPMG said the centre will develop innovative approaches, analytical methods and tools for using big data to give UK businesses the opportunity to solve complex issues, such as enabling banks to predict fraud or helping retailers better understand consumer behaviour.
The eight-year project will aims to complete between 15 and 20 projects per year, with plans to train 800 PhD students to become data scientists.
The centre will be led by researchers at Imperial College Business School as part of the college’s Data Science Institute, which is already developing new data science methods and technologies and supporting data-driven research.
The first initiative is a Global Data Observatory, designed to bring large and complex amounts of data together with data visualisation capabilities to enable researchers to spot patterns and get real insights into complex business issues, said the partners.
KPMG UK chairman Simon Collins said: “Our collaboration with Imperial is about developing the people and skills to use data to drive new industries and new services.”
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