Urban Big Data Centre

What Urban Big Data Centre does

Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) is a research centre based at the University of Glasgow, established in January 2014 with an initial £14 million joint investment from the UK Government (via the Economic and Social Research Council) and the University of Glasgow. The organization functions as a national data infrastructure hub for urban research, hosting one of the UK's largest collections of licensed urban datasets and providing secure access to academic researchers, policymakers, and local authorities. Its core products include a public Data Catalogue, computer vision tools for urban sensing (including CCTV object detection and LIDAR processing), the IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem Platform for Global South informal settlement mapping, and bespoke analytic services for UK local government.

UBDC's underlying technology stack centres on geospatial data management, computer vision (notably YOLOv4-based object detection), and statistical/spatial analysis tooling, with infrastructure supporting secure access to sensitive administrative datasets through the ADR Scotland partnership. The centre has assembled a distinctive asset base including 350M+ Adzuna job listings, Zoopla property data, Huq mobility data, and curated sensor outputs — typically secured through long-term data-for-research partnerships with commercial providers. Strategic partnerships span UK local authorities (Glasgow City Council, Renfrewshire Council), international organizations (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Brazil's Secretaria Nacional de Periferias), and philanthropic funders including the Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and UKRI.

The business model is grant-funded rather than commercial. UBDC derives no meaningful product revenue from data licensing or SaaS offerings; instead, it operates on multi-year research grants from UK research councils and international foundations, with cumulative disclosed funding exceeding £20 million over its operational history. The centre employs 51-100 staff and monetizes its data and methodological expertise through research outputs, policy advisory work, and capacity-building programmes rather than direct commercial transactions. This structure limits scalability but provides a stable operating base tied to public-sector and philanthropic priorities.

Name

Urban Big Data Centre

Legal name

Urban Big Data Centre (University of Glasgow)

Website

https://ubdc.ac.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Urban Big Data Centre is a University of Glasgow research centre that hosts licensed urban datasets (Adzuna, Zoopla, Huq) and provides data analytics, computer vision tools, and the IDEAMAPS platform to academic researchers, UK local authorities, and international partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Glasgow

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Research Funding and Grants: Supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the University of Glasgow. Receives significant research grants from UKRI, Wellcome Trust, Gates Foundation, and European Space Agency for specific research projects. UK government announced £14 million investment in January 2014 for the creation of UBDC and two other data services forming part of the Big Data Network.
2. Data Licensing and Services: UBDC provides data services including licensed data (from Zoopla, Adzuna, Huq) and open data. They work with data owners to agree terms that maximise data value while safeguarding owners' interests. Data collections range from open data through restricted data to controlled data for accredited users in secure environments.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

UBDC is a national research centre and data service that captures, processes, and analyses urban big data to provide academic researchers, policymakers, and local authorities with curated access to licensed and open datasets, analytical tools, and research outputs. Its core deliverables include the Data Catalogue housing datasets on transport, housing, labour market, and environment; expert data curation and analysis services; the Glasgow CCTV Object Detection Platform; and graduate education programmes (MSc/PhD) in urban analytics.

Product overview

UBDC is a national research centre and data service providing a comprehensive platform of smart urban data products and services. The core offering centers on the Data Catalogue (data.ubdc.ac.uk) providing access to extensive datasets, supported by Data Services for expert curation and analysis. Data is organized around four Data Themes (Transport and Mobility, Housing and Property, Labour Market, Environment) and five Research Themes (City Modelling and Sensing, Housing and Neighbourhoods, Labour Markets, Transport and Mobility, Urban Governance). Key data products include the Adzuna Job Listings Dataset (350M+ records), Zoopla Property Data, Glasgow CCTV Object Detection Platform, Public Transport Accessibility Indicators, LIDAR/3D city models, and nightlight imagery. The platform also encompasses the IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem for international development, PACHA climate-health research in Brazil, MSc/PhD education programmes, and training resources including how-to guides and webinars. UBDC provides both open data access and licensed data for academic research, with technical tools including the CCTV API and GitHub-hosted open-source code for web scraping and analysis.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Data Catalogue Central data repository providing access to UBDC's extensive collections of licensed and open urban datasets including property, transport, labour market, and environmental data for academic researchers and policymakers.
• Data Services Expert data services including data collection, processing, analysis, and curation support for researchers and policymakers working with smart urban data.
• Glasgow CCTV Object Detection Platform Privacy-protecting system that uses computer vision (YOLOv4) to count pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and other objects from Glasgow City Council CCTV cameras, providing openly available mobility data.
• CCTV Object Detection API API providing programmatic access to Glasgow CCTV object detection counts including pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles from cameras in Glasgow City Council area.
• Adzuna Job Listings Dataset Longitudinal dataset spanning 2016-2024 containing more than 350 million job advertisements from the UK's most popular vacancy search engine for labour market research.
• Zoopla Property Data Property listing data from Zoopla covering sales and rentals for Great Britain from 2010 onwards, available under licence for non-commercial academic research.
• Public Transport Accessibility Indicators Open dataset showing public transport accessibility across Great Britain, indicating how easy it is to reach different amenities (jobs, healthcare, retail) from various locations.
• MSc Urban Analytics Programme Master's programme in Urban Analytics offered by University of Glasgow, providing graduate-level training in urban data analytics methods and smart data analysis.
• MSc Urban Transport Programme Master's programme in Urban Transport offered by University of Glasgow, providing graduate-level training in transport planning and mobility data analytics.
• PhD Programme Substantial PhD programme at University of Glasgow supervising students worldwide with interests in diverse applications of urban analytics methods and smart data.
• Airbnb Web Scraping Platform Open-source software platform and methodology for scraping short-term-let data from Airbnb, available on GitHub for researchers to replicate data collection methods.
• IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem Platform Digital mapping tool empowering citizens with local knowledge to help improve deprived areas in Low- and Middle-Income countries, developed with $1.5m Gates Foundation funding.
• PACHA Research Project Participatory Analytics for Climate-Health Adaptation project combining climate and health data with participatory action research in Brazil's favela communities, funded by £2.5M Wellcome Trust.
• Training Resources Training courses, how-to guides, webinars, and workshop materials including YOLOv4 Object Detection, multimodal transport routing with R, time series charting, and web scraping for research.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over £1 million investment pledged by Southwark Council in response to Hot Homes project findings
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

AI capability19 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered strategic, core and secondary.

• Secretaria Nacional de Periferias (Brazil)strategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2024Part of Brazil's Federal Ministry for Cities, partnering on the Mapa das Periferias (Map of the Peripheries) project to support community mapping of informal settlements in Brazil. UBDC provides expertise in participatory urban analytics.
• Humanitarian Open Street Map Team (HOT)strategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2024International NGO partnering with UBDC and Secretaria Nacional de Periferias to deliver MdP Collect, a customised Field Mapping Tasking Manager tool for community mapping campaigns across Brazil (April-November 2025).
• AdzunacoreTechnology or Integration · 1 March 2021Partnership providing access to millions of job listings data for the whole UK. Dataset spans 2016-2024 with over 350 million job advertisements collected through weekly snapshots.
• HuqcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 March 2021Partnership providing academics with access to mobile phone app data with high spatial and temporal resolution. Data used for mobility metrics and travel behaviour analysis.
• ZooplacoreTechnology or Integration · 1 August 2017Strategic partnership providing access to property listing data from sales and rentals for the whole of Britain (from 2010 onwards). Data available under licence for non-commercial academic research.
• University of GlasgowcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Host institution for UBDC. Based at Lilybank Gardens on the university's West End campus. Jointly funds UBDC with ESRC and provides academic programmes including MSc and PhD in Urban Analytics and Urban Transport.
• Glasgow City CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partner providing data access and collaboration on urban research. UBDC works with the council on CCTV data, traffic monitoring, and city transformation projects. The council's Head of Business Intelligence cites UBDC collaboration as critical for data-driven decision making.
• North Lanarkshire CouncilsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partner in addition to Glasgow City Council for local authority data collaboration and research projects.
• GALLANTsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as a strategic partner, details of collaboration not specified in available source material.
• Fundacao Getulio Vargas (Brazil)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerBrazilian institution in PACHA project consortium, working with UBDC on climate-health adaptation research in disadvantaged urban communities in Brazil.
• Centre for Integration on Health Data of Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz (CIDACS/Fiocruz)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerBrazilian health research institution in PACHA project consortium focusing on climate change impacts on health and wellbeing in Brazil's favelas.
• Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerBrazilian university in PACHA project consortium contributing to climate-health research in urban communities.
• Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerBrazilian university in PACHA project consortium working on participatory urban analytics for climate adaptation.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Urban Institute: US-based non-profit research organisation producing data-driven analysis on housing, cities, and economic mobility. Comparable to UBDC in delivering evidence-based urban and social policy research using large datasets, though serving primarily a US audience.
• Open Data Institute (ODI): UK-founded organisation focused on building an open, trusted data ecosystem, including urban and mobility data. Comparable to UBDC in championing data access for research and policy, though ODI works across sectors while UBDC is urban-specific.
• Centre for Cities: UK think tank focused on urban economic performance and policy. Comparable to UBDC in targeting UK policymakers and producing data-driven urban analysis, though it is policy/publishing-led rather than data-platform-led and does not operate a licensed data catalogue.
• Future Cities Catapult (Connected Places Catapult): UK government-backed innovation centre for urban innovation and mobility. Comparable to UBDC as a publicly funded UK centre working at the intersection of urban data, transport, and policy, though with a stronger innovation/commercial focus rather than academic research.

Direct peers

• Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (UCL): UCL research centre focused on urban analytics, smart cities, and spatial data science. Closely comparable to UBDC in disciplinary focus (urban analytics, city modelling), target audience (researchers and policymakers), and delivery (research outputs, training, MSc programmes). Sir Alan Wilson, UBDC's 2014 opening speaker, is associated with CASA.
• MIT Senseable City Lab: MIT research lab studying how digital technologies and sensor data reshape urban environments. Comparable to UBDC through its work with mobility data, computer vision applied to cities, and partner-funded urban analytics research.
• New York University Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP): NYU research centre applying big data and analytics to urban challenges including transport, housing, and infrastructure. Comparable to UBDC in combining urban-focused data science with public-sector use cases, education programmes, and city partnerships (e.g., New York City agencies analogous to Glasgow City Council).
• The Alan Turing Institute: UK national research institute for data science and AI, also founded with government/RCUK backing and operating across multiple universities. Comparable to UBDC as a publicly funded national data research hub serving academic and policy users, though Turing operates more broadly across data science rather than focusing on urban analytics.

Emerging players

• Data & Society: US research organisation studying the social implications of data-centric technologies. Comparable to UBDC in the social-science framing of urban data and ethics, though focused on research outputs rather than operating a data infrastructure platform.

Others

• Smart Cities Council: Industry consortium advising cities on smart city strategy, data, and technology adoption. Comparable to UBDC as an adjacent stakeholder in the urban data ecosystem, helping cities adopt data-driven approaches analogous to UBDC's research and policy work.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/urbanbigdata
• GitHubgithub.com/urbanbigdatacentre
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/UrbanBigDataCentre
• Facebookfacebook.com/urbanbigdata
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/urban-big-data-centre-at-the-university-of-glasgow

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Urban Big Data Centre