DEBIAS is one of seven projects funded by the Smart Data Research UK programme through their £1.8 million research investment. Smart Data Research UK is the national programme for smart data research. Its mission is “to unlock the power of data to improve lives”.

A key problem with mobility data derived from digital technologies is that they can be biased, over-representing certain groups and under-representing others. This can make it difficult to determine how applicable research findings are to the overall population. DEBIAS aims to develop a way to quantify and adjust existing biases in smart data on human mobility so that research can be trusted and more broadly adopted.