By processing, combining and ordering different data sets, we produce new data that can serve as a basis for research projects and policy. Beyond project-specific endeavours, we’ve forged robust, long-term tools in order to inform analyses of our economies.
Autonomy's Data Unit sits at the heart of the organisation's workflow.
Our work consists in combining and refining different datasets, producing digital tools for research and designing cutting-edge data visualisations.
Generating new data
Statistics & Economics
Our team benefits from rich academic and industry experience in the field of economic analysis and diverse statistical approaches. With specialities in mathematics, physics and both orthodox and heterodox economics methods, we can turn our hand to the grand challenges of our time.
Data visualisation
Analysis of data must be supplemented by effective communication, often for a variety of audiences. Autonomy’s Data Unit creates industry-leading visualisations to this end.
Machine Learning and AI
Our team develops Machine Learning and AI-based techniques to shore up databases, generate data and build prospective scenarios that can take research to a ‘beyond-human’ scale. AI is not a magic bullet, and is simply a tool with specific affordances, but our work brings it to bear as an augmentation to researcher investigations – be they economic, journalistic or oriented to questions of climate.
Web Crawling
Our web crawling service has a number of potential uses, from fine-tuning messaging to mapping nodes/networks of influence. Web crawling can also augment other means of gauging wider public sentiment, such as polling and focus groups.
Software development
As part of our work, we mobilise our software and web development skillsets in order to produce online tools, dashboards and machines that take audiences beyond the familiar presentation formats of reports and graphs.
Grasping every job in all its details
ASPECTT
A multidimensional job database analysing skills, tasks, expertise, technologies and more
We have constructed a highly dynamic dataset that includes a full decomposition of occupations into skills, tasks, educational qualifications and technologies used. In the UK context it is unprecedented, but its ambition does not stop there: we are expanding the dataset to include global jobs. Such a dataset gives researchers, policymakers, trade unions and others an unprecedented granularity when it comes to understanding the labour market. Such a tool is indispensable for understanding:
- The trajectories of skills over time
- The feasibility of worker transitions between industries
- ‘Skills gaps’ of all kinds
- The susceptibility of automation of certain tasks within occupations
- The relationship between skills and wages
Do you work in national or local government?
ASPECTT will help design fair and efficient transition plans for workforces, as we make the shift from carbon-intensive industries to sustainable sectors. By giving a high-resolution image of the possible pipelines between jobs, policymakers can move from speculation to action-planning. ASPECTT can also give insight into the changing trajectory of skills, tasks and abilities in the labour market over time.
Do you work for a trade union?
ASPECTT will help trade unions plan for the future for their members. By unpacking the occupational elements of a sector, ASPECTT allows trade unions to see the value of certain skills/expertise and the possible avenues for role adaptions in light of the changing nature of our economy and climate. ASPECTT also allows for forecasting the threat of automation with regards to certain tasks on the job, so trade unions can craft policy and campaigns accordingly.
Are you an NGO or campaign group?
ASPECTT will give you the highest resolution image of what a just or green transition could look like at the level of jobs and industries. With this knowledge, your campaigns and your reports will be best equipped to confront the obstacles to change as we strive to move towards a sustainable economic model.
Are you a business leader?
ASPECTT will help you understand the task, skill, expertise and educational composition of your workforce and the sector you are in. It will help plot possible avenues for transition away from unsustainable working practices and towards sustainable job roles for your enterprise.
Are you a university?
ASPECTT will help you understand the skills composition of the UK labour market currently and over the past few decades. Its high-resolution data will show the wage value of certain skills and educational qualifications, allowing for the more precise planning of courses and modules. Which abilities and skills are scarce in the labour market today? Which skills and abilities receive the highest remuneration and which undergraduate and graduate courses might best fit these occupations?
Are you an academic or independent researcher?
ASPECTT will contribute greatly to studies across a number of disciplines. If you work in economics, sociology, public policy, environmental studies, climate science and others, ASPECTT will be able to augment your research questions with robust, detailed data on occupational characteristics unavailable elsewhere. Tailoring the database to your research questions, Autonomy can act as an industry partner as part of your research project to deliver results.
Click here to read more about how your work could be augmented with AI
Augmented Research Services
Autonomy have built bespoke research, campaign and auditing tools
Autonomy offers its own set of AI-driven tools, designed specifically for researchers, journalists, campaigners and auditors. Each serves different needs, but they all expand the breadth and depth of research – beyond what is currently possible with human labour and human time constraints:
- Scribe
- Scope
- Big House
- In-House
Sonia Balagopalan
Sonia holds a PhD in mathematics from Maynooth University. Her research specialises in geometry and discrete optimization, which informs her work with the ADU on database manipulation and data visualisation.
Lukas Kikuchi
Lukas is a specialist in stochastic processes, large deviations theory and statistical physics – holding a PhD from Cambridge University. He is the Director of the Autonomy Data Unit (ADU), which produces cutting-edge data analysis and visualisation on the present and future of our economies.
Luiz Garcia
Luiz is a quantitative economist versed in heterodox and mainstream theories. With the Autonomy Data Unit (ADU), he assesses work relations through micro and macroeconomic modelling in multiregional and multisectoral scenarios.
Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan
Bhargav is a research scientist and engineer with a focus at the intersection of AI and Society. He has formal training in both Computer Science and the Social Sciences, and experience working across disciplines, from public policy to economic history. Bhargav has written a book on Natural Language Processing, is writing a second book on Deep Learning, and has published peer-reviewed articles in world leading journals. He has an MA in Computational Social Science from the University of Chicago.
Jeremy Kwok
Jeremy has experience working as a lead economist at a central bank and at various financial institutions, with a background in engineering. He works within the Autonomy Data Unit (ADU) as a doctoral researcher (co-funded by Autonomy) focusing on nowcasting the UK economy.
Sean Greaves
Sean has experience as an ML Solutions Engineer in corporate and start-up environments and has worked closely with organisations such as Bellingcat and the Strelka Institute. He is part of Autonomy’s Data Unit and will be exploring the potential of AI for progressive change.
To get in contact about commissions, consultancy or collaboration, please email: info@autonomy.work