A Data Consortium: Coming Together Around Data

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

If properly realized, the data deluge will be a catalyst for new scientific discovery that fuels advances in grand challenge questions such as climate and social-ecological interactions. While federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation have invested very successfully in repositories, infrastructure, and tools for data-intensive science, investing in data solutions is not the same as investing in high performance computing resources because unlike general purpose compute facilities where the facility can be separated from the use, it is difficult to separate data from its semantics, so general purpose solutions only address part of the problem, and a small part at that. Recognizing the opportunities that could be realized through stronger integrated efforts, NSF is encouraging a path towards coordinated efforts that result in satisfying the needs of a broader constituency that strives for interoperability, harmonization of concepts, protocols, and standards nationally and internationally. This proposal is a small but fundamental next step towards building an organization with lasting and significant impact on the broader community engaged in 4th paradigm research and education.