Farewell to Laura!
It’s with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to Laura, one of our brilliant Senior Research Associates, who is moving on to new adventures beyond the lab. The team went out for a farewell brunch last […]
Read moreUniversity of Bristol, UK
It’s with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to Laura, one of our brilliant Senior Research Associates, who is moving on to new adventures beyond the lab. The team went out for a farewell brunch last […]
Read moreLast week, Anya, Romana, and Alisha travelled to Finland to take part in an exciting two-day international collaboration workshop focused on the use of shopping data in health research. Hosted in Tampere, the event brought together […]
Read moreWe are delighted to have a paper published this week to the International Journal of Population Data Science, titled “Linking Digital Footprint Data Into Longitudinal Population Studies”. Led by Romana, the paper is based on findings […]
Read moreNeo presented at Jean Golding Institute (JGI) Data Week 2025, during the “Gambling Harms Research: Ideas for a Data-driven Research Agenda” session. Neo discussed the use of digital footprints data and linkage with longitudinal population studies […]
Read morePopulation Health Science Institute (PHSI) Annual Symposium 2025 took place on 4th June, with the theme “From Data to Action: The Impact of Population Health Research in Practice“. Neo presented a poster, showcasing the use of […]
Read moreAfter successfully securing JGI seedcorn funding (January 2025) we set out to explore how everyday data—specifically supermarket loyalty card data—can be transformed into meaningful insights for public engagement. Developed by lab member Dr. Laura Fryer and […]
Read moreThe Lab returns from a fantastic two days at the latest Digital Footprints conference! Hosted at the University of Leeds, the event brought together nearly 100 attendees from academia, government, industry, and third sector organisations, collectively […]
Read moreOn the 8th of May, we hosted a workshop in collaboration with Bristol Population Health Science Institute to explore how supermarket loyalty card data can support research into cancer and chronic disease prevention. Co-organised by Alisha […]
Read moreOn the 23rd of April, Anya presented the lab’s work on shopping data linkage and acceptability as well as recent key examples at the Oxford Big Data Institute Digital Phenotype seminars. There were loads of interesting […]
Read moreOn April 23rd, Romana, Alisha, and Neo attended the British Feeding and Drinking Group (BFDG) Early Career Researcher (ECR) event. The event brought together ECRs from across the UK and beyond, with around 30 attendees working […]
Read moreOn April 10th, Romana presented at the second workshop for the Health Data Research Network (HDRN), in Bristol. The event welcomed around 25 attendees from across the university and beyond to discuss best practices in working […]
Read moreAlisha presented findings from her PhD at the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting 2025, held in Bristol. The conference brought together researchers, practitioners, and clinicians working at the intersection of behavioural science and […]
Read moreOn March 27th, Romana, Poppy, and Anya attended the Women in Data flagship in London. There were 3500 attendees at the event, and the day was comprised of main stage talks, focused workshops, interactive panels, and […]
Read moreLast week, Poppy gave a presentation about her PhD at the University of Oxford. She spent the day with the Pain in Women research group which is led by Professor Katy Vincent, and part of the […]
Read moreWe’re happy to announce that the Digital Footprints Lab has received a grant of £413,085 which is supported through the Smart Data Research UK/Economic and Social Research Council for their project ‘An acceptability and governance foundation […]
Read moreAt the University of Bristol’s Digital Footprints Lab, we are uncovering the hidden potential of supermarket loyalty card data. Traditionally leveraged for marketing, this data holds significant promise for public health research—providing insights into dietary habits, […]
Read moreEarlier this week, Poppy took part in a panel event on period poverty for International Women’s Day at the University of Bristol’s Student Union. Period poverty is defined as a lack of access to the materials, […]
Read moreThis week we are excited to welcome Martha Burford, who is starting her new role in the lab! 🎉 With her previous administrative experience at the University of Bristol, she’ll be a fantastic addition to the […]
Read moreOn Wednesday we successfully launched the Health Data Science (HeDS) Group at Bristol Medical School. The event took place at Oakfield House, where 25 attendees gathered to introduce themselves, network, and discuss ideas for the future […]
Read moreThe Digital Footprints Lab (DFL) is pleased to announce plans for a workshop to be held in summer 2025 at Tampere, Finland, in collaboration with Tampere University and the University of Helsinki. This event is made […]
Read moreWe are thrilled to announce that Alisha has secured a £500 funding award from the Population Health Science Institute to host an interdisciplinary networking workshop. This workshop, hosted by the Digital Footprints Lab at the University of […]
Read moreRomana, Alice, Laura and JGI Data Scientist Huw attended We The Curious (WTC) Science Center to host a ‘Meet the Researcher’ event at our ongoing exhibition “Shopping Trolley Secrets” on Saturday the 14th December. Shopping Trolley […]
Read moreWe are delighted to announce that Alisha has secured a Seedcorn Funding (2024-25) award of £6,260 from the Bristol Population Initiative (BPI) for her project ‘Ultra-Processed Foods and Health Inequalities: A Data-Driven Approach to Understanding Socioeconomic […]
Read moreNeo has secured a £61k Flexible mobility award from Consumer Lab, which is one of the Innovation Hubs at the University of Bristol, focusing on dietary choices and health data science. Partnering with N/LAB at the […]
Read moreWe are thrilled to announce that Laura’s data visualisation project has secured a seedcorn 2024-2025 funding award of £23,000, along with dedicated data science time from the Jean Golding Institute (JGI). The aim of this project […]
Read moreOn November 25th-27th, Romana, Alisha, and Poppy attended the IEU retreat at Cumberland Lodge (in Windsor), an event which allowed attendees to build connections and learn new research skills. The retreat started off with an exciting […]
Read moreThis week, Romana and Laura both achieved their ONS (Office for National Statistics) Accreditation—an exciting accomplishment for them and the Digital Footprints Lab! 🎉 The certification—which provided essential training on securely accessing and handling sensitive datasets—will […]
Read moreOn November 20th, we attended an event at The Alan Turing Institute: Private Data for Public Good: How Data Sharing Benefits Business and Society which was organised through the Novel Data Linkages for Health and Wellbeing […]
Read moreAre you interested in researching the links between diet, ultra-processed foods, and cancer? We’re excited to announce a fully-funded PhD opportunity at the Digital Footprints Lab at the University of Bristol. We’re looking for a […]
Read moreThis week we have Alice James starting her new role in the lab! With a background in health inequalities research and a PhD in Healthcare Sciences, which saw her investigating disparities in cancer outcomes for people […]
Read moreOn November 8th, we took part in a “Meet the Researchers” after hours event at We The Curious Science Centre, engaging the public in our ongoing exhibition “Shopping Trolley Secrets”. Shopping Trolley Secrets invites the public […]
Read moreSix months to the day since Digital Footprints 2024, as we are gearing up for Digital Footprints 2025 hosted by the University of Leeds, we wanted to reflect on the success of the event and our […]
Read moreOn 17th of October, Anya presented Digital Footprints Lab work at Ministry of Justice to 85 analytical and data science staff. The talk generated a lot of questions and interesting discussion in the end.
Read moreThis week we have Poppy Chappell starting her new role in the lab! Poppy is joining us as a Research Administrator, bringing 12 years of previous administration experience at the University of Bristol. She will be […]
Read moreWe’re excited to share that our paper – Harnessing digital footprint data for population health: a discussion on collaboration, challenges and opportunities in the UK – was published yesterday in BMJ Health & Care Informatics! This […]
Read moreA couple of our recent outings with the lab!
Read moreOn September 11th, over 200 researchers gathered at We The Curious for Jean Golding’s 85th birthday event, celebrating the incredible impact of her work on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Anya spoke […]
Read moreYesterday, Romana travelled to the Palace of Westminster for an Industry in Parliament Trust (IPT) Parliamentary Seminar. The IPT is an independent charity aiming to facilitate engagement between Parliament and UK business, and the seminar aimed […]
Read moreLast week we welcomed our new post-doc, Laura Fryer! Having completed her PhD in Astrophysics — investigating the interaction between the Sun and the Earth’s magnetosphere — Laura has spent time developing data management skills in […]
Read moreThis week we welcome Alisha Suhag, who has just submitted her PhD at the University of Sheffield! She will be applying her epidemiology and psychology background to work on projects relating to the integration of digital […]
Read moreLast week, Poppy travelled to Devon for the inaugural 4M Conference at the University of Exeter. More than 150 people joined from academia, healthcare, charity and industry, to learn about the latest research and on-the-ground action […]
Read moreWe have recently welcomed Sneha Umashankar, who is carrying out her masters dissertation project with the Digital Footprints Lab. Her project will explore the categorisation of shopping data, before carrying out an in-depth analysis of a […]
Read moreEarlier this week, Poppy published a new paper in Women’s Reproductive Health together with co-author Alison Greig (Anglia Ruskin University). It uses mixed methods to study young women’s experiences of menstrual health education in English schools. […]
Read moreLast week, Poppy travelled to Liverpool for the third annual Menstruation Research Network Conference at Liverpool John Moores University. Having been involved in menstrual research and activism online for several years, it was a great opportunity […]
Read moreLast month, we hosted the successful Digital Footprints Conference at the University of Bristol. As we were keen to include the voices of people in the early stages of their careers, we held a panel session […]
Read moreNeo and Poppy presented their works on data donation during Jean Golding Institute (JGI) Data Week 2024, firstly as a workshop and secondly as panelist of the “Data for Impact” session.
Read moreOn the 3rd of April, the team went out to Pizza Workshop on Whiteladies! Vegan burrata was especially praised (although lovely pizza too!)
Read moreLast week, Romana attended the AI UK 2024 conference, hosted by the Turing Institute and aiming to showcase innovations in data science and AI. The conference took place over two days, and was held at the […]
Read moreOn the 22nd of March, Anya presented work on digital health and shopping data at the First Faculty of Public Health AI & Digital Health Interest group. The event was online and attended by 170 participants […]
Read moreDFL took part in the Consumer data applications: Causal research in novel linked datasets. The workshop took place on the 21st of March and was organised jointly by two Turing Interest groups: Novel data linkages for […]
Read moreOn the 14th of March, Anya hosted an online webinar in collaboration with AI UK Fringe, a series of talks hosted by the Turing Institute aiming to share ongoing research in the field of AI. The […]
Read moreYesterday, Poppy presented at the Faculty of Health Sciences Spring Symposium in Bristol, where she shared plans for her PhD on exploring inequalities in managing menstrual symptoms using shopping data. The symposium was attended by 50 people […]
Read moreOn the 8th of March, Anya presented at the JGI International Women’s Day Seminar. She talked about her path in health data science as well as reflected on difficulties accounted along the way. The event was […]
Read moreThis week, Romana and Neo have both been awarded a £400 Research Staff Development Fund. For Romana, the fund will enable her to attend two significant Turing events: the Causal Research Workshop and the AI UK […]
Read moreLast Thursday, Poppy attended the ‘Management of heavy menstrual bleeding: Women’s voices informing future health research’ event, hosted by The EVIdencE Synthesis and Methodology Group for Women’s Health Research (EVIE) group at UCL. The day included […]
Read moreWe worked with We The Curious (WTC) and Woven Films to create a video explaining some aspects of our research with shopping data. Check out a blog by WTC featuring a video with Lizzie Dolan and […]
Read moreAnya presented on DFL work at an online ONS Health Data Science Seminars dedicated to Digital Footprints, together with Tim Chico (University of Sheffield) and Will Dixon (University of Manchester). The seminar was attended by 160 […]
Read moreDigital Footprints Lab extends a warm invitation for you to join us at the Digital Footprints 2024 conference, taking place at the University of Bristol on May 8th and 9th. Building on the triumph of last […]
Read moreYesterday we had our Christmas dinner 2023 at Muiño Bristol. Also massive congratulations to Dr Romana Burgess for passing her viva!
Read moreOn November 30th, the Alan Turing Institute hosted the second meeting of the Turing Special Interest Group (SIG) on Novel Data Linkages for Health and Wellbeing, organised by Anya Skatova (University of Bristol) and Michelle Morris […]
Read moreOn Thursday 26th October, our new PhD student Poppy attended the Faculty of Health Sciences PGR Symposium at Bristol Aerospace. Taking place besides the Concorde, the day began with a keynote lecture from Dr Kaitlin Wade […]
Read moreOn 25th of October, Anya presented at ClOSURE Data Linkage about our work with ALSPAC and shopping data linkages. She provided overview of the project, linkage update and plan for next steps, including ESRC Data Services […]
Read moreOn friday the 20th of October, Anya took part in a panel organised by The Royal Statistical Society Data Governance and Ethics Section on International approaches to the legal, governance and ethical challenges of social media […]
Read moreThis week we have yet another person joining, Romana Burgess has just submitted her PhD in Digital Health and joining the lab to work on shopping data and health projects!
Read moreThis week we welcome Poppy Taylor who is starting a PhD student with Digital Footprints Lab, co-funded by The Health Foundation. Her PhD will evaluate the utility and acceptability of using a novel health data source […]
Read moreWe are delighted to announce that the Conference Proceedings for The Digital Footprints ’23 Conference have been published in the International Journal of Population Data Science. The proceedings were compiled by Dr. Anya Skatova, in collaboration […]
Read moreAn exciting fully funded PhD position has opened up at the Digital Footprints Lab to start in October 2023. The PhD project focuses on the utility of using shopping data to understand female reproductive health. This […]
Read moreChronic pain is a major health issue across the globe. Researchers estimated that at least 10% of the population in the United Kingdom are suffering from pain conditions. If we consider the entire world, some estimated […]
Read moreA couple of weeks ago, on the 25th of May, Anya presented our lab’s work at Dunnhumby, a leading company for retail data analytics. The talk focused on using transactional data for public good and was […]
Read moreJob Advertisement Post! Are you looking for a job in behavioural data science as a postdoc? Do you want to work with novel approaches to improve public health? Look no further and join Digital Footprints Lab […]
Read moreOn the 14th of June Elizabeth and Anya met with We The Curious and Woven films to discuss creating a public engagement event and film to maximise the impact of Elizabeth’s PhD research. Really exciting to […]
Read moreLast month I had the pleasure of organising and co-chairing (with Michelle Morris) the 1st Digital Footprints Conference, which took place at the University of Bristol in the magnificent Wills Memorial Building. We conceived this one-day […]
Read moreAnya published a paper in Plos One from Value of Personal Data project together with collaborators Rebecca McDonald (University of Birmingham), Sinong Ma (Queens University Belfast) and Carsten Maple (University of Warwick). It uses Willingness to […]
Read moreBack in March, Anya participated in the panel discussion at the AI UK 2023 that took place in the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, London; together with together with Johanna Hutchinson (UKHSA), Albert King (NHS […]
Read moreAnya talked to James Gallagher from BBC 4 Inside Health about challenges and opportunities of research with shopping data and what benefit it can bring for public health. The episode was first aired on the 21st […]
Read moreOne of a series of knowledge share series aiming to bring together members of Roche (a large biotech company, and leading provider of in-vitro diagnostics and innovative solutions across major disease areas) and The Alan Turing […]
Read moreA protocol describing how to link shopping history data into a longitudinal population study has been published on Wellcome Open Research by Anya in collaboration with Andy Boyd. The paper uses Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents […]
Read moreNeo has recently been awarded two funds, including a £5,000 Seed Corn Fund from the Jean Golding Institute (JGI) and a £400 Research Staff Development Fund. The JGI Seed Corn Fund will be used to conduct […]
Read moreBack in November, Anya presented her and lab’s work at the Welsh NHS Confederation Conference in Cardiff. It was attended by over 800 attendees from Welsh NHS, central and local government, charities, community groups, industry and […]
Read moreLast week Anya, together with Michelle Morris from University of Leeds, hosted an inaugural meeting of the Turing Special Interest Group on Novel data Linkages for Health and Wellbeing. It was great to see many familiar […]
Read more25.10.2022: Digital Footprints Lab had a very productive writing day at the Alan Turing Institute, located at the British Library, London. After all previous attempts with rail strikes and COVID cancellations, we finally made it! Compulsory […]
Read more18.10.2022: Anya and Neo presented our lab’s work with shopping data to Statistical Genetics group at the MRC IEU, University of Bristol, led by Gib Hemani. We had a great discussion about potential of the shopping […]
Read moreBack in July members of Digital Footprint Lab – Neo, Lizzie, Steve and Anya – took part in the inaugural meeting of DDAC: Data Donation Advisory Council at the University of Nottingham. DDAC was founded by […]
Read moreOn 21st of September, Anya, together with James Goulding and Georgiana Nica-Avram from N/Lab at University of Nottingham, presented to the Spatial Unit at Levelling Up Department on Shopping Data and Inequalities. The slides can be […]
Read moreThe Digital Footprints Lab collaborated with We The Curious, which is a major science and educational centre in Bristol, and delivered the public event Shopping Trolley Secrets throughout the past summer. In total we delivered three […]
Read moreOn the 20th of September Digital Footprints group (or at least most of its members!) had a writing day which turned very productive for everyone! We also had a dinner out and drinks to say good […]
Read moreThrough June and July of 2022, I got to be a member of the Digital Footprints Lab at the University of Bristol. I worked primarily with Dr. Neo Poon and Dr. Anya Skatova, and the goals […]
Read moreThe Digital Footprints Lab was invited to participate in the Jean Golding Institute (JGI) Data & AI Showcase 2022 on the 7th of June 2022. The Showcase was the flagship event of JGI and discussed the […]
Read moreOn Saturday the 11th of June 2022 Bristol hosted Big Tent Ideas Festival attended by around 850 people. It brought together politicians, including sitting members of parliament, medical practitioners, journalists, artists, scientists, health campaigners and the […]
Read moreOn the 4th and 5th of December 2021, we had the fantastic opportunity to host an event in the Open City Lab at We The Curious, the science and educational centre in Bristol. ‘Shopping Trolley Secrets’ […]
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