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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/N020294/1
Title: Causal Inference from Partial Statistical Information
Principal Investigator: Evans, Professor RJ
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
University of Bristol
Department: Statistics
Organisation: University of Oxford
Scheme: First Grant - Revised 2009
Starts: 01 April 2016 Ends: 03 July 2018 Value (£): 99,005
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Statistics & Appl. Probability
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
23 Nov 2015 EPSRC Mathematics Prioritisation Panel Meeting November 2015 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Much of statistical theory is concerned with the analysis of a single

data set, obtained from an experiment, survey, or study. However in

many fields which most urgently demand new statistical methodology,

problems do not fit this paradigm. Instead data are gathered from

multiple settings under different experimental conditions, which may

measure different variables or be sampling from different

populations. This leads to situations in which it is unclear how to

combine statistical information in a way that provides a coherent

solution agreeing with all studies, and which properly quantifies the

uncertainty in the estimation process.

The gold-standard method for answering causal questions is the

randomised controlled trial (RCT), but RCTs are extremely expensive

and usually end without a positive result. Meanwhile biology and

medicine are at the forefront of the big data revolution, as more and

more is being measured at greater and greater resolutions; the 100,000

Genomes Project and UK Biobank each contain tens of thousands of

genetic and phenotypic measurements on hundreds of thousands of

people. Electronic healthcare records will generate Terabytes of

medical information about tens of millions of people. Many of the

quantities measured in these data sets cannot be experimentally

controlled for practical, financial or ethical reasons.

This project aims to uncover how much we can learn about the causal

mechanisms underlying multiple large and complex data sets without

performing experiments, or with limited experimental data: to learn

as much as possible about the world just by looking.

Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Summary
Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
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Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.ox.ac.uk