The Alliance for Data Science Professionals

The Royal Statistical Society is part of an alliance of organisations that have come together to create industry-wide professional standards for data science. It aims to ensure an ethical and well-governed approach so that the public, organisations and governments can have confidence in how their data is being used. 

Other organisations in the alliance are: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT; the Operational Research Society; the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications; the Alan Turing Institute and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society. 

Governed by a memorandum of understanding, the Alliance is committed to:  

• Defining the standards of professional competence and behaviour expected of people who work with data which impacts life and livelihoods. These include data scientists, data engineers, data analysts and data stewards
• Using an open-source process to maintain and update the standards
• Delivering these standards as data science certifications offered by the Alliance members to their professional members, with processes to hold certified members accountable for their professional status in this area
• Using these standards as criteria for Alliance members to accredit data science degrees, and data science modules of associated degrees, as contributing to certification
• Creating a single searchable public register of certified data science professionals. 

Here are the Standards as set by the Alliance and the accompanying Levels document that help explain how to evidence your competencies.

Read our Standards document (PDF)
Read our Levels document (PDF)

Read our news announcement about the Alliance of Data Science Professionals.