Until the end of the final reporting period, the SanDAL ERA Chair has successfully achieved its objectives, establishing a strong research presence in Mathematical Statistics and Data Science (MS&DS) at the University of Luxembourg (UL). Despite initial challenges, including COVID-19-related disruptions, the project has made significant progress:
1. The ERA Chair Holder, Prof. Yannick Baraud, was recruited in August 2019, followed by the establishment of a research team comprising postdoctoral researchers, PhD candidates, and interns.
2. The initial, midterm and final versions of the ERA Chair Strategic Research Programme have been produced and more importantly, three Master programmes have been developed: i) The Master in Data Science (MADS) was launched in September 2021 and has grown significantly, attracting increasing numbers of applicants each year.; ii)The Master in Actuarial Science has been fully developed and awaits final recruitment steps of an actuarial specialist (the endeavor will be under the scope of the new endowed chair, to optimize the full deployment as soon as possible), and iii) the Master in Applied Data Science has been developed but was was ultimately not approved on the highest level. The development of a PhD programme in Data Science continues to be worked on in close collaboration with the stakeholders.
3. SanDAL has explored potential funding opportunities to expand its work in MS&DS research topics. The ERA Chair has organised and participated in several workshops with Luxembourgish stakeholders and H2020 funding schemes to become familiar with national socio-economic challenges and to build a collaborative network for future projects and to support their academic programmes. Several proposals have been retained for funding: FNR RESCOM International Conference funding (awarded in 2020); FNR PRIDE Doctoral Training Unit (awarded in 2022); INTER-AUDACE project with Luxembourg Institute of Health and Quebec partners (awarded in 2022.); AFR-NASA Ames bilateral postdoctoral fellowship (awarded in 2023); FNR-Industrial fellowship PhD project in collaboration with Luxembourgish industry partner ITTM (awarded in 2023); UL internal funding scheme IAS-Distinguished TIMEDATA workshop project (awarded in 2023) and IAS-Audacity PERFORM research project (awarded in 2024).
4. The ERA Chair Team has organised several events during the project, including regular probability and statistics seminars and the SanDAL Inaugural Lecture, which introduced the ERA Chair Holder, the aim of project and the scientific focus. Four summer and winter schools took place throughout the project duration. The organisation of an International Conference planned in Year 3 has been postponted to Year 4 in order to take advantage of more relaxed sanitary restrictions, which in Year 3 were still having a very negative impact. SanDAL organized 3 international conferences (1 nationally funded (RESCOM), and 2 SanDAL-funded).
5. Finally, SanDAL has also been active with dissemination and outreach activities. These include presentations at scientific events, participation at international conferences, press coverage, as well open days at the university and non-academic sessions for the general public.
