BP on behalf of its co-venturers in the projects that it operates - the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), Shah Deniz, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline and the South Caucasus Pipeline projects, has announced its support for the establishment of the first Big Data, Data Sciences Instruction and Research Centre in Azerbaijan.

The project is part of BP and its co-ventures’ commitment to supporting education, training and capacity-building in the country. It is designed to have a wider impact by providing opportunities for utilization of the resources of the new Centre by public institutions and private sector representatives.

The Centre, which will be established at Baku’s ADA University, will also result in commencement of a new Master’s Degree programme in Big Data Analytics and Data Sciences which will help meet the needs for data scientists and big data analysts.

Addressing the project launch event held in Baku today, Gordon Birrell, BP’s Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, said: "BP and its co-venturers are pleased to support this project which is expected to provide an opportunity for establishment of a new area of development in the country. The project is specifically about developing qualified data scientists, data and information engineers and big data analytics professionals for the country. We believe this will help improve analysis capabilities in a range of areas and disciplines in both private and public sectors. This is also an opportunity for BP and its co-venturers to expand their cooperation with the Ministry of Education and to enter into a new partnership with the ADA University”

The expected outcomes of the project also include expansion of the capacity of the ADA University School of Information Technologies and Engineering to enable development of new areas of local expertise in a range of best-in-class software and hardware technologies.

The project will be implemented by the ADA University. The duration of the project is 15 months starting October 2016 through December 2017. The value of the project is $410,000.