Jesus College is delighted to announce a new endowment that will support a series of four consecutive Junior Research Fellowships to further research in to the better use of data, evidence and digital tools in healthcare and policy, and optimise the impact of interventions to achieve improved outcomes.

The endowment has been made possible thanks to the generosity of philanthropist Peter Bennett, and his wife Desiree. Peter, a Cambridge graduate (Churchill College, 1975) and formerly a successful banker and hedge fund manager, is the founding benefactor of The Peter Bennett Foundation, which works to support academic endeavours to effect systemic change in the global community.

 

The Foundation recently funded the creation of the new Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford. The Institute, based at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, will bring together academics from a range of disciplines, including clinicians, software engineers, policy experts and statisticians, to develop and implement new methods and tools to make data and evidence more impactful in the world, improving the lives of patients and citizens, enhancing and expanding the work that has been undertaken to date by the DataLab.

The funding also included the establishment of a new Statutory Chair – the Bennett Professorship of Evidence-Based Medicine – which will be affiliated to Jesus College. The Chair will provide academic leadership in the field of data science, helping to unite and focus efforts in this rapidly-changing field across University departments and divisions.

The new endowment, funded by the Bennetts in collaboration with the College, will support Junior Research Fellows (JRFs) from a range of academic disciplines, who will complement and support the work of the Statutory Chair. Each Fellowship will be for three years duration.

The affiliation of the new Statutory Chair to Jesus College and the founding of the four Junior Research Fellowships will further strengthen the College’s pivotal role in pioneering academic research in the data sciences. The College’s Principal and Professorial Research Fellow in Computer Science, Sir Nigel Shadbolt FRS, FREng, a world-renowned expert in the fields of artificial intelligence and open data says, “We are living in a time where huge advances in digital technologies have transformed many aspects of our lives, communities, societies and economies. Such advances have enabled the accumulation and processing of huge amounts of data, including that related to the individual, and we must create processes and opportunities to maximize usage of this data to bring about positive change on a global scale; to build a world where data works for the benefit of everyone.”

It is an honour for Jesus College to be at the forefront of the University’s strategic ambitions for innovative interdisciplinary research in the field of data science, and this generous endowment by Peter and Desiree Bennett will enable us to recruit the finest young minds, from across a range of academic disciplines, to make those ambitions to a reality.”  

Mr Bennett said, “Earlier this year, the Peter Bennett Foundation was pleased to announce the establishment of the Bennett Institute of Applied Data Science at Oxford University, which will focus on analysing and harnessing data to make better decisions and drive better outcomes for all. In support of this initiative, I am also pleased to share that my wife Desiree and I will provide an endowment to support four consecutive Junior Research Fellowships in the same field at Jesus College. We are thrilled to be further bolstering our affiliation with Jesus, and fostering further research in the realm of applied data science.”

The process to appoint the first Junior Research Fellow will begin later in the academic year. In addition, the College is delighted to announce the appointment of Peter Bennett to the Jesus College Fellowship as a Queen Elizabeth I Fellow from 27^th September 2021.