Model-focused enhancements are saturating
We've started off in research data science with a wave of model-focused advancements and applications, particularly into finding applications of deep learning in primarily imaging and natural language fields. These are saturating, I think, as we move forward into the problems that don't have the same set of inductive biases as learning from text and images.
Research vs Business Data Science
One of my colleagues (well, strictly speaking my boss' boss) recently crystallized a very important and key idea for my colleagues: the difference between biomedical research data science and tech business data science. I gave his ideas some thought, and decided to pen down what I saw as the biggest similarities and differences.
The goals between the two "forms" of data science are different:
There are issues that I'm seeing in the data science field. Some of the problems I have seen thus far.
And what I think is needed:
The key difference, I think is that The end goals of business data science is about capturing value from existing processes, while The end goals of research data science is about expanding new avenues of value from unknown, un-developed, and un-captured business processes. The latter is and has always been an investment to make; in a well-oiled system, the former likely generates profit that can and should be invested in the latter.