Children and Young People
We aim to deliver projects with actionable insights that will benefit children and young people both globally and in Scotland, in support of the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Our projects support all aspects of a child’s life and will seek to improve outcomes and well-being, through working with third and public sector organisations that work directly to support children. We carefully consider if and how we meaningful engage children and young people in any of our projects. We respect their contributions as one of the diverse sets of expertise in our collaborations.
Our Team
Many thanks to Morven (at age 11) for the wonderful drawings of our team!
Alex Hutchison
Director
As Director, Alex is responsible for the strategic delivery of actionable insight through innovative use of data and data science methodologies. Alex has led the team to; design an operating model to build diverse collaborative teams from academia, public and private sectors; develop a 'Responsible Innovation' framework; and create a portfolio of projects answering challenge questions from third and public sector organisations.
Prior to this role, Alex draws on over 10 years of experience of working in the finance sector, with roles on change programmes and latterly in the domain of data management and governance.
Fraser Macdonald
Deputy Director
Fraser specialises in using cross-sector collaboration to solve complex problems. He has worked across UK and international research communities, designing and managing transformational projects for the public, private, and third sectors.
As Deputy Director at the Data for Children Collaborative, Fraser is responsible for operational delivery. Fraser creates novel methodologies that enable trans-disciplinary collaboration, data-driven innovation, and end-to-end impact evaluation. Prior to this role, Fraser worked for The Data Lab Innovation Centre, delivering a broad portfolio of Industry-academic innovation partnerships worth £5m.
Fraser is also Chair of the Data Advisory Board at Young Scot, Scotland's largest young person’s charity. The board provide guidance and support, enabling the charity to leverage data and improve the lives of young people in Scotland.
Olivia Hale
Senior Project Manager
As Senior Project Manager, Olivia oversees the agile delivery of numerous portfolios and manages multi-disciplinary global teams to ensure the successful delivery of impactful projects with targeted external partners.
Olivia has formal project management qualifications and significant experience having led the successful delivery of the Research and Excellence Framework submission for the College of Science & Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Additionally, Olivia brings extensive research impact expertise to her role; she led Knowledge Exchange & Innovation strategy and operations at the Edinburgh College of Art whilst tracking/evidencing research impact for numerous projects across different subject areas.
Olivia is deeply embedded in equality, diversity, and inclusion activity across the University of Edinburgh and actively advocates for social justice and racial equality. She has been engaged in various leadership roles with the Edinburgh Race Equality Network, Staff BAME Network Mentoring Programme, and the Research Cultures Working Group.
Iwona Soppa
Advocacy and Relations Manager
Iwona leads the development and implementation of the internal Responsible Innovation framework. Iwona is focused on embedding practical toolkits that enable the delivery of Data for Good projects.
Iwona has an academic background in Philosophy, with a particular interest in data ethics and the relationship between technology and society.
Advisory Board
Chair
Stefaan Verhulst
Co-founder & Chief of Research & Development, The GovLab at New York University
Members
Alex Hutchison
Director of the Data for Children Collaborative
Prof. Chris Speed
Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh
Carly Redhead
Head of Impact Partnerships, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap
Albert King
Chief Data Officer at NHS National Services Scotland
Yves Jacques
Chief, Frontier Data & Tech Unit at UNICEF Headquarters
Tom Wilkinson
Chief Data Officer, Scottish Government
Dr William C Smith
Senior Lecturer in Education and International Development (Academic Lead for the Data for Children Collaborative)
Claudia Calderon Machicado
Partnership Lead, Development Data Partnership and the World Bank Data Lab
Mick Wilson
Head of Education Analytical Services, Scottish Government
Manolo Perez
Finance & Operations Director, The Data Lab
Karen Bett
Senior Policy Manager, Data Equity and Inclusion, Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data
Edinburgh Futures Institue
We are housed at the Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh. The Edinburgh Futures Institute’s purpose is to pursue knowledge and understanding that supports the navigation of complex futures. EFI’s distinctiveness stems from their approach to research, education and engagement – an approach that combines multi-disciplinarity with co-production. Working with industry, government and communities (at home and abroad) they are building a challenge-led and data-rich portfolio of activity that has demonstrable ethical, social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts. The EFI aims to Challenge, Create, and make Change happen.
University of Edinburgh’s Data Driven Innovation Programme
The Data for Children Collaborative is supported by the University of Edinburgh's Data-Driven Innovation initiative, part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, aiming to make the region the data capital of Europe. You can find out more information about DDI here.
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh is keen for their research, education and methods to make a contribution to the well-being of children across the globe and sees this as opportunity to work with key partners to achieve this.
Our past and present partners
In our first three years of activity, we were funded by the Scottish Government and the University of Edinburgh’s Data Driven Innovation Programme and formed a unique partnership with both of those organisations and UNICEF. UNICEF, which has engaged in a number of data collaboratives globally wanted to expand on the outcomes that can be impacted via data capabilities. We continue to support both UNICEF and the Scottish Government in achieving their strategic priorities by providing access to a wider range of data and expertise across the public and private sectors, as well as through academia.
In early 2023, the Data for Children Collaborative transitioned from a partnership model to a specialist unit model within the Edinburgh Futures Institute, continuing to deliver projects with UNICEF and the Scottish Government while allowing for broader collaborations with new challenge owners.
