Data Science Centre

The Data Science Centre (DSC) seeks to improve human health and quality of life by applying a rigorous and innovative approach to the design, analysis and reporting of health research studies.

The DSC provides support in biostatistics, bioinformatics, epidemiology, data management and research design to RCSI staff and students. The DSC collaborates with RCSI researchers, departments and faculties on high-impact substantive research projects and leads cutting-edge methodological research advancing knowledge in biostatistics and bioinformatics.

DSC staff have expertise in many areas, including: design and analysis of randomised controlled trials and observational studies, causal inference and comparative effectiveness research, clinical prediction rule development, analysis of ‘omics’ data, data integration, data management plans and FAIR data, multivariate statistics, qualitative research, and systematic reviews and meta-analysis.

The DSC supports academic activities in grant and ethics submissions, publications and supervision of Masters and PhD students.

Contact us

The DSC is involved in providing content and delivery for several courses and staff/postgraduate training across RCSI.

This includes modules on the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences’ MSc in Technologies and Analytics in Precision Medicine. The DSC is responsible for the biostatistical training module for the School of Postgraduate Studies, is involved in the delivery of the health informatics and statistics for the SPHeRe PhD programme, as well as contributing to several master’s programmes including the Master’s in Surgery.

Support for researchers

Support to RCSI researchers is provided through a number of routes, including a) one-to-one clinic and online appointments where studies are discussed and advice provided, b) training workshops and c) other resources (videos, documents, online resources) on Moodle.

Please send enquiries to data@rcsi.com with an informative summary of your research project and specific support needs. Please request separate appointments for each research project you wish to discuss. Once a query is received, we will confirm receipt, request more information if required, and then refer the query to a relevant member of the DSC team.

Research interests

The staff within the DSC have several research interests including pharmacoepidemiology, medication adherence, disease epidemiology and epidemiological modelling, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, randomised controlled trials, clinical prediction rules, cancer transcriptomics and genomics and interrogating infiltrating lymphocytes in cancer, qualitative methods and application on statistical modelling techniques to complex problems.

The EMeRGe group (epidemiology and modelling research group was established by Prof. Bennett from a HRB research leader award (2016-2020). It aims to improve population health outcomes through research evidence and to translate the evidence into effective decision making for policy and practice.

Associate Professor/Head of Centre

Senior Lecturers

Postdoctoral Researchers

Research Assistant

  • Samantha Trevaskis

Research Nurse

  • Niamh Kavanagh

Affiliated staff