The Science Unit of data of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) was created two years ago with a transversal approach , with the goal to promote scientific partnership with researchers from the center and the rest of the University. Since its inception, it has provided statistical advice on projects in numerous fields, such as health, architecture, fashion, etc....

"We want to be able to convey to the researchers at campus the benefits of having us as part of their team, not as mere technicians or advisors, but as collaborators". This is how the Unit's director , Jesús López Fidalgo, expresses one of the main challenges they face.

An example of fruitful cooperation is work with the ATLANTES Program, a line of the ICS focused on the promotion of palliative care. The Unit has contributed its experience in the development and validation of surveys in various publications related to topics such as the training of health professionals, the development of country rankings or the patients' wish to die.

Outside the ICS, one of the most outstanding collaborations in the campus has been with SAVIArquitectura (Sostenibilidad Ambiental Vivienda Industrialización y Arquitectura), an group of the School of Architecture which researches in the field of eco-design of industrialized and sustainable enclosures, and the quantification of sustainable architecture.

López Fidalgo explains that they use a program to simulate the energy expense in temperatures. "The general idea is to find the best model, each of them of great mathematical complexity, to achieve a minimum energy cost," he says.

Healthy lifestyles and stroke diagnosis

In addition, in the Clínica Universidad de Navarra cooperate on two projects. One has to do with lifestyles and the risk of developing a disease. "This allows doctors to give personalized advice to patients on per diem expenses, weight, physical exercise, etc.," he says. The other deals with the diagnosis of cardiovascular events.

Some doctoral students have also knocked on the doors of the Science Unit at data, according to Jesús López Fidalgo. This has been the case of Patricia San Miguel, who in her thesis has analyzed the topic "Fashion Influentials: opinion leadership and buying behavior in fashion. The case of millennials". Under the supervision of group she developed a survey at network using snowball sampling.    

Beyond the limits of campus, the Unit maintains partnership with other universities, mainly with the University of Castilla La Mancha, where Jesús has been Full Professor, and with the University of Salamanca. In both he worked as professor and researcher before joining the ICS and in both he formed a group of research which has been funded by the National Plan of research for years. Professional links are also maintained at present with professors at the Public University of Navarra, the high school Severo Ochoa BCAM in the Basque Country, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, La Laguna or Almería, in Spain, and at UCLA (USA), Alberta and Manitoba (Canada), Harvard and Milan (Italy), among others campus abroad.

López Fidalgo stresses that "it is important to take advantage of knowledge and the experience of other people working on issues close to ours". research That is why they have received visits from specialists from centers such as the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), and from countries such as Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom and Egypt, to the ICS at partnership in the last two years.

Aware of the need to awaken statistical vocations to ensure the generational relay, the Statistics Unit is also present in proposals that help to convey to the youngest the importance of this discipline. One of them is 'Stat Wars: the awakening of the data', which emerged as an initiative of the National Biostatistics network and has the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) of the Ministry of Economics, Industry and Competitiveness.

The other is the Navarra phase of the 'Incubadora de Sondeos y Experimentos' Contest, co-organized with the department de Estadística e research Operativa de la Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), with the partnership of the Sociedad Navarra de Profesores de Matemáticas "TORNAMIRA" Matematika Irakasleen Nafar Elkartea; of the high school de Estadística de Navarra; and of the department de Education of the Government of Navarra.

Attracting talent to the team

For Jesús López Fidalgo, all this is just the beginning of a long road: he wants to continue advancing along these lines and to promote the design of experiments, which is the specialization program of group. To this end, he stresses that it is core topic to attract talent to the team. Along these lines, this yearPablo Urruchi, who has worked as a scientist at data at the UK headquarters of Avenade, a joint business of Microsoft and Accenture, will join the group team. At ICS he will start his doctorate and will help in the coordination of the degree scroll Big Data Specialist, which starts its second edition.

López Fidalgo indicates that a formula for consolidation is the one that has been implemented with the project of SAVIArquitectura. It has funding from the European Union, which has made it possible to finance part of the contract of a person from the Science Unit of data (in previous years Lissette Álvarez and currently Leire Alegría). "This co-funding model is positive because several projects can share the dedication of an expert in this field and, in turn, financial aid us that the group can grow and settle," he stresses.

He recognizes that the profile of statisticians is currently highly valued, especially by private companies, and that makes it difficult to recruit new staff. "In fact, two people who have worked in the Unit this past year have continued their careers elsewhere, for example at the prestigious consulting firm Serikat (Bilbao headquarters)," he says.

All in all, for him, academic life has a singular attraction: "It is a great satisfaction to advance in knowledge and solve important problems for society, as well as to teach future generations what you have been discovering throughout your career". In addition, he emphasizes the versatility of work, because "statistics allows you to interact with researchers and professionals from very different fields. You can be studying the migratory habits of blackbirds or the retention of radiation in the human body.

Jesús López Fidalgo

He is Full Professor of the ICS. He was previously at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). He has made extended stays of research and teaching at the Universities of Manchester, Glasgow and California (Los Angeles and Riverside). He is also an elected member of high school International Statistician.

He is currently president-elect of the Sociedad de Estadística e research Operativa and publisher-chief of the journal Test. He has been manager of the National Mathematics Plan in the Ministry of Science and Innovation (2009-2011) and was director of the School of Industrial Engineering of the UCLM (2008-2016).

He has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals and has written several books, including knowledge dissemination El azar no existe. He has directed thirteen doctoral thesis and coordinates one of the 8 nodes of the network national Biostatistics.