Paul Watson is director of the UK's National Innovation Centre for Data, professor of computer science at Newcastle University and a fellow of the Alan Turing Institute. He also directs the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cloud Computing for Big Data. After obtaining a BSc and PhD at Manchester University, he began his career there as a lecturer before moving to industry (ICL) to design parallel database servers. In 1995, Prof. Watson joined Newcastle University, where his research and teaching has focused on scalable data engineering. From 2009-15, he directed the UKRI Social Inclusion for the Digital Economy Hub that tackled social exclusion by designing digital technologies to help people and communities, including older people and those with disabilities. Prof. Watson is a co-investigator on the Mobilise-D study, where he has played a key role.