Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs Announced

Posted by Emily Glenn on November 13th, 2015 Posted in: Technology
Tags: data

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As a part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Administration’s Big Data Research and Development Initiative and to accelerate the emerging field of data science, NSF announced four awards last week, totaling more than $5 million, to establish four Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Hubs) across the nation.   These new hubs (West, Midwest, South, and Northeast) are expected to accelerate the pace of discovery in science and engineering, strengthen national security, and fuel the growth and development of Smart Cities in the US.  

The West Hub covers 13 states (including NN/LM PNR states of Alaska,  Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington) and will be jointly coordinated by the University of California, San Diego, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington.  The initial themes of the West Hub include Big Data technology, data-enabled scientific discovery and learning, managing natural resources and hazards, metro data science, and precision medicine. Partnerships fostered through the Hub will enable the use of Big Data to assess risks related to regional and long-term decisions. The Hub’s structure will enable impact in later phases of the Hubs program that may include data-driven models for managing natural resources to tools for integrating self-collected patient data for more precise care options. The BD Hubs will be sites for transitioning research into practice, and for educating and training the next-generation workforce in data science.

In addition to the BD Hubs, the NSF also the release of a new solicitation for projects that will leverage the BD Hubs’ data – the BD Spokes initiative. Each BD Spoke will focus on a specific BD Hub priority area and address one or more of three key issues: improving access to data, automating the data lifecycle, and applying data science techniques to solve domain science problems or demonstrate societal impact.