UK-Japan Big Data Workshop 2015
“Innovation is GREAT”

 In recent years, the question of how to take advantage of the vast amounts of data (or ’big data’) that exist in all industries and all fields of research has become an important component in the strengthening of international competition and the development of science and technology. It could be said that these challenges, of how to create value from data and how to connect this data with the solutions of social problems and the creation of new industries, are of key importance to the economically developed countries of Britain and Japan.

 In Japan, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) has invested their research budget into the field of big data, and has been implementing the 2 CREST program and further programs since 2013. ERATO, which is also in the field of big data, CREST and further programs are currently underway.
 In the UK, technological research into ‘big data’ is listed as one of the most important items in the 8 important fields of research that are promoted by the British government (the Eight Great Technologies). In 2013, £189 million was allocated from the government to support the development of innovative technologies and strengthen the UK’s competitive advantage in Big Data.This field of research encompasses a wide range of issues, from global observation to medical care.

 In both Japan and the UK, there has been discussion over the past year about big-data-era medicine, applied technology in the social sciences, and the handling of, and policy formation around personal information. Both countries have been deepening their common understanding and strengthening personal networks for researcher exchange. For the purpose of deepening understanding further, Memorandum of Understandings were signed between University College London (UCL) and the National Institute of Informatics (NII) and The Institute of Statistical Mathematics (ISM), as well as between Data Science Institute, Imperial College London (ICL) and the Research Organization of Information and Systems.
 A workshop will be held when the 3 MOUs are signed in which top researchers from both countries will come together. This event, is part of an “Innovation is GREAT campaign,” to be launched during Prince William’s first visit to Japan. (It is a campaign that will introduce British technology to the world spanning a wide range of fields from robotics to big data. Its aim is to further cooperation between British and Japanese in business, education, and research and will run throughout 2015.)

 The Big Data workshop will consist of three parts. The first part (in the morning) will take, as its subject, ‘big data: basics and theory’. Top researchers in the field from both countries will report on the current day progress of British and Japanese research. In addition, keynote lectures will be given by information researchers from the MOU organization, integration researchers, and researchers from UCL.

 The afternoon sessions will mainly aim at the general public and will focus on the following two topics, sharing research findings and generating discussions: “Data application and utilization (Part II)” and “ Big data: Data disclosure and privacy (Part III)”. In the big data era both countries face common challenges in the world and key speakers from Japan and the UK will give lectures on this topic. The second part will introduce typical examples of how big data is utilized in Japan (CPS [cyber physical systems], agriculture, and medical care). Lectures will be given in the third part by Sir Nigel Shadbolt, chairman and co-founder of the Open Data Institute, which is at the core of data publishing, and information researcher, Professor Ichiro Sato, who is a Japanese representative specializing in the selection of guidelines for private and public data.