Data Science Professional Uncovered: How the EDISON Project will Contribute to a Widely Accepted Profile for Data Scientists

The digital revolution made available vast amounts of data both in industry and in the research landscape. The ability to manipulate and extract knowledge and value from this data represents a new profession called the Data Scientist: expected to be the most visible job in future years. The EDISON project has been established in order to support universities, research centers, industry and research infrastructure organisations to cope with the potential shortfall of Data Scientists, to define the framework of competences as well as the body of knowledge for this profession. In this paper the EDISON team describes how it intends to nurture the profession of Data Scientist to cope with the expected increase in demand. The strategy proposed is based on both the analysis of the demand side (industries, research centers and research infrastructure organisations) and the supply side (Universities and training centers) bridging between the providers and employers by cooperating on the establishment of a Competence Framework and a Body of Knowledge for the Data Scientist Professional. The project will exploit piloting initiatives in cooperation with pioneer universities and also involve external experts as evangelists.