EPIC, Scotland’s Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks, gathered almost 100 scientists, livestock industry stakeholders, and policymakers from across the UK and Ireland to explore current and future uses of Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) in the livestock industry and other One Health sectors.
On 4th to 5th March, at the John McIntyre Conference Centre, EPIC hosted their annual conference. This year, the theme, “Building a Resilient Future for Animal Health and Welfare: Data-Driven Innovation in Policy and Practice,” allowed EPIC and its stakeholders to consider how DDI tools can improve animal health and support policymaking.
DDI, or the use of data and advanced digital technologies, including machine learning tools and artificial intelligence, is evolving quickly. Researchers and others in the livestock industry must work together to explore opportunities and address the regulatory, ethical, and economic challenges of integrating data collection and analyses with DDI tools.
“We want to address major issues to make automated cognition tools more effective, usable, and trustworthy to the public,” explained Iain McKendrick, Co-Director of EPIC and Head of Consultancy at Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS), during the welcome address at the conference. The conference took a future-thinking approach, highlighting the importance of constant innovation to improve detection and management of outbreaks to protect animal health and welfare in Scotland.
Conference speakers were from the EPIC consortium, Scottish Government, Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society, and higher education institutions across Scotland and Ireland. They addressed major concerns in DDI and animal health, such as trust, the ethics of using AI, and data privacy issues in models.
Conference Day One
On day one, Professor Christos Tachtatzis, Professor of Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of Strathclyde and Tom Wilkinson, Chief Data Officer at Scottish Government opened the conference as keynote speakers.
Christos explained how machine learning that uses text, audio, and images can provide more insight to optimise management and policy around livestock. Christos illustrated the potential for tools to monitor behaviours such as eating, rumination, and movement. View recording: Prof Christos Tachtatzis - EPIC Conference 2025
Tom discussed the ethics of AI, its limitations, and trustworthiness. Highlighting Scotland's progressive approach to AI technologies, he presented the Scottish Government's goal that all organisations use available data to drive innovation and enhance global wellbeing. Tom highlighted that Privacy Enhancing Technology can encourage data reuse among different data-sharing partners. This technology could build trust in public engagement and decision-making processes by protecting individuals’ privacy. View recording: Tom Wilkinson - AI opportunities and challenges: Responsibilities and Ethics
Day one of the conference closed with a poster reception where thirteen posters on DDI and EPIC work were presented, and delegates engaged in lively discussions.
Conference Day Two
Day two of the conference began with four presentations demonstrating data-driven innovation in EPIC’s research. EPIC scientists described research on bird keepers' attitudes toward mandatory online bird registration, using livestock movement data for effective decision-making on bluetongue control, and addressing the challenges of disease modelling with limited data. Several speakers highlighted that EPIC seeks to make the best use of available data and proposed the “gold standard” of data formatting and management in the event of an outbreak.
- Dr Giles Innocent - Data anonymisation and pseudonymisation
- Dr Niamh Mahon - Importance of backyard poultry registration
- Dr Stephen Catterall - Modelling disease spread with limited data
On the afternoon of day two, EPIC welcomed four external speakers for the session “Bridging the gap between data users and data stakeholders”. This session considered examples of farmers’ use of data in practice and the potential benefits, such as cost and time efficiencies, offered by machine learning approaches in BVD diagnostics. Speakers also explored future directions of DDI, and the challenge of communication and transparency around DDI approaches.
- Jess Enright - Horizon scanning for the future: AI, data, and other stories
- Niamh Mimnagh - Predicting outbreaks of BVD for Irish cattle herds
- Scott McDowell and Abbie McGillivray - Farmers and data (MyHerdStats)
Conference Panel
Lisa Boden, Co-Director of EPIC, closed the conference with a five-speaker panel focused on, ‘Exploring solutions for data-driven innovation challenges in animal health policy and practice beyond 2030.’
At the start of the panel, Lisa acknowledged that in data and practice, “There is a difference between what we can do, what we need to do, and what people want to do.” Addressing each of these actions, panelists explained there needs to be a foundation in which each stakeholder involved in the data collection process have trust in one another and are equipped with the tools to generate quality data and results.
Abbie McGillivray explained that research data can be overwhelming to farmers, who need accessible research and data tools to make their livestock production more efficient. Panelists agreed that to achieve this, the roles, expectations, and communication between farmers, researchers, and policymakers need to be clear to enable each group to use the data they already have. View the full panel.
Conference Closing
Harriet Auty, Co-Director of EPIC closed the conference highlighting the importance of collaboration among stakeholders in the livestock industry and engaging effectively with AI.
“Al has the most effective outcomes when it's linked to human efforts, so we need to actively be forward-looking. This conference has given us some really valuable and worthwhile things to think about in terms of future directions, how we can incorporate some of these opportunities in the work we are already doing, and how to manage some of these challenges,” said Harriet.
As communication and trust become more important, and misinformation spreads, EPIC’s scenario planning work could be used to help us thoughtfully engage with DDI, and address ongoing and future challenges in data and technology over the next ten years.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Lewis Houghton, photographer for the event, Cameron Events for recording the talks, and Jenny Capon for recording key themes throughout the conference in the visual minutes.
