Federico Botta

What I Work On

Urban Analytics

Understanding how cities function through mobile phone data, social media, and other digital traces — from crowd size estimation to urban vibrancy to access to greenspace.

Transport & Mobility

Analysing patterns of human movement to understand inequality in access to transport, the affordability of public transit, and how COVID-19 restructured people's mobility.

Data Science for Policy

Bridging cutting-edge research and government decision-making — providing evidence to Parliament and co-designing research with teams at the Department for Transport, ONS, and 10 Downing Street.

AI & Society

Exploring how AI and large-scale data can be used responsibly and equitably, while addressing questions of bias, access, and public trust in data-driven systems.

Impact in Numbers

19 peer-reviewed publications

0.8 £M+ in research grants

4 Parliamentary Select Committees

8 PhD students

15 countries with media coverage

3 postdoctoral researchers

Recent Highlights

2025 — Appointed Programme Lead for Exeter’s new MSc in AI for the Environment
2025 — New research on healthcare access inequalities (Journal of Physics: Complexity) and rail journey costs (Environment and Planning B)
2024 — General Chair of the Conference on Complex Systems (CCS2024), the world’s flagship conference in complex systems science
2024 — Gave oral evidence to the Transport Select Committee on the future of transport data
2024 — Appointed Deputy Director of Education (PGT) at Exeter
2023 — Published in Nature Human Behaviour on how COVID-19 restructured human mobility across space and time
2021–2023 — ESRC No. 10 Data Science Fellow, embedded with the data science team at 10 Downing Street and the ONS Data Science Campus

Working with Partners

I actively seek collaborations with organisations outside academia — particularly in government, the public sector, and mission-driven industry. If you are working on challenges involving transport, cities, data, or AI and want to explore a research partnership, I welcome a conversation. Previous partners include: Department for Transport · Office for National Statistics · 10 Downing Street Data Science Team · Natural England · DEFRA · Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office · LV= / Allianz Insurance · City Science

Get in touch View my research Policy & impact

Current Projects

Bus transport accessibility across England — Using national bus timetable data (BODS) to map how travel time variability affects access to healthcare and other essential services, with direct relevance to transport equity policy.
Greenspace and recreational value — Quantifying the recreational and wellbeing value of landscape features across England.
Urban vibrancy and social sensing — Ongoing work using mobile phone data, app usage data, and online traces to understand how different social groups experience and navigate urban environments.
Knowledge exchange with RAMM, Exeter — Applying data science to visitor behaviour at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum to better understand and anticipate audience patterns.
Transport equity and journey costs — Analysing the affordability and cost of public transport journeys.

Prospective PhD Students

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students interested in working at the intersection of data science, urban analytics, and social inequality. Current areas of particular interest include public transport accessibility and equity, urban vibrancy and social sensing, human mobility modelling, and AI applications in environmental and social contexts.

Funding opportunities include EPSRC and ESRC Doctoral Training Partnerships (through the University of Exeter), as well as project-specific studentships — see the University’s postgraduate research pages for current opportunities. If you have a strong quantitative background and are motivated by research with real-world policy impact, feel free to get in touch with a brief description of your interests.