The Obama Administration announced a “National Big Data Research and Development Initiative” in March 2012. At that time six federal departments and agencies promised more than $200 million in new commitments to improve and develop the tools, techniques, and human capital needed to move from data to knowledge to action.
Now in the second year of the Big Data Initiative, the Administration is encouraging multiple stakeholders including federal agencies, private industry, academia, state and local governments, non-profits, and foundations to develop and participate in Big Data innovation projects across the country.
Later this year, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, NSF and other agencies in the Networking and Information Technology R&D (NITRD) program plan to convene an event that will highlight high-impact collaborations and identify areas for expanded collaboration between the public and private sector.
Right now, the Administration is interested in projects that will:
- Advance technologies to support Big Data and data analytics
- Educate and expand the Big Data workforce
- Develop, demonstrate and evaluate applications of Big Data to improve key outcomes in economic growth, job creation, education, health, energy sustainability, public safety, advanced manufacturing, science and engineering, and global development
- Demonstrate the role that prizes and challenges can play in obtaining new insights from Big Data
A two page summary for possible projects needs to be submitted by September 2, 2013 to BigDataprojects@nitrd.gov. The summary needs to identify, the goal of the project, list the multiple stakeholders that will participate in the project, provide initial financial and in-kind resources that the stakeholders are prepared to commit to the project, provide a principal point of contact, and state whether NITRD can post the project description to a public website.
Go to www.nitrd.gov/nitrdgroups/images/6/6e/Making_the_Most_of_Big_Data.pdf for more information.