The company wants to build strong ties with selected academics to improve customer behaviour and loyalty thinking that it provides to its clients. It is also using the investment as part of its recruitment strategy.

For example, Dr Peter Riefer, from UCL, who was co-sponsored by dunnhumby and wrote a research article published in Nature Human Behaviour has now joined the company’s global science team as a full-time member of staff.

The article was co-authored by UCL Professor Bradley Love and members of dunnhumby’s Global Science team. Dunnhumby’s other academic partnerships include Imperial College London and many of the academics involved are members of the Alan Turing Institute, the London-headquartered national institute for data science. 

Rosie Prior, academic partnerships manager at dunnhumby, said: “Our investment into data science collaborations with world-leading academics has had a positive impact on dunnhumby’s offerings, enabling us and our clients to benefit from new approaches and solutions.”