How Our Catalyst Grant Launched One of the World’s Most Powerful Data Scientists

Did you know that Digital Science runs a Catalyst Grant program which supports early stage ideas around innovative ways to improve scientific research?

A past recipient of one of our £15,000 grants was Michael Schmidt whose innovation was focussed on separating the signal from the noise in the age of Big Data. He recognised the need for a quick and simple tool to allow researchers to be able to uncover and analyse complex patterns in increasingly large data sets.

With the support offered by Digital Science’s grant Michael’s idea has grown into Nutonian, a fully-fledged technology start-up. Their software, called Eureqa, is now installed on 35,000 machines in over 80 countries. Just this year Michael was personally named by MIT Technology Review as one of the world’s top 35 Innovators Under 35. He has also been named by Forbes, jointly with Hod Lipson, as one of the world’s 7 most powerful data scientists.

Michael is certain that Nutonian wouldn’t be where it is today without the help of Digital Science. As he says himself, “the support we got from the Catalyst Grant was instrumental, we wouldn’t have been able to do this project without that sort of support”.

Do you have an innovative scientific software idea? Make it a reality and apply for our Catalyst Grant here.