Collaborative Research: Institutionalizing the Data Sciences, a Sociotechnical Investigation of BDHubs

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

The world is being changed by Big Data, and data science is receiving a remarkably rapid uptake across the nation and the globe as it institutionalized in university curricula, state governance, and industry strategy. Across the sciences, state and industry, new forms of data collection and analysis hold the prospect of our being able to address the major social and scientific issues of our times: from responding to natural disasters to monitoring the environment to developing fundamental technological insights which will revolutionize industry. None of this will happen by fiat ? the development of the appropriate data analytics must be accompanied by new organizational alignments between research, policy and industry. The Big Data Hubs and Spokes (BDHubs) program is a key site for analyzing the nature of these alignments with a view to gaining a basic understanding of the stakes as the terrain shifts. All long-term research and innovation infrastructure must adapt to such ongoing changes. This research will contribute to understanding institutional flexibility: strategies, techniques and organizational innovations to adapt to changes in regulatory, policy and funding environments. We can expect but not precisely predict, continuing transformations in the sociotechnical, scientific and institutional ecologies of today?s research and scientific infrastructure. This project will investigate the ongoing activities at the BDHubs and its partner institutions, their emerging plans for the future, and tie these to the long-history of developing research infrastructures (50+ years) to understand the changes we can expect BDHubs to encounter over time (scientific, technological and institutional), and what strategies they employ in the face of transformations to the landscape of science, information technology and institutional environment. Many challenges facing contemporary science such as environmental research or chronic disease management require long-term studies and supporting infrastructures. This project will contribute directly to NSF and other efforts to build more open, effective, and sustainable knowledge communities across the sciences, industry and government. Improving understanding of the long-term trajectory of research infrastructure will lead to smarter and more sustainable investment and design choices on the part of project leaders, participants, tool builders, and funders. Many other science agencies are in the midst of funding such cross-cutting projects. This research will inform science policy and regulatory environments to help develop sustainable and productive research infrastructures. In order to do so, this study will develop a general organizational understanding of the development of large-scale and long-term endeavors in the data sciences and map the institutional landscape of modern data science with particular focus on the activities of infrastructure building, policy development and community formation. In addition, this study will help to develop an understanding of the ?rise of the data sciences? in the US both as an institutional movement and as a form of technical research, with special focus on establishing a framework for evaluating and understanding large-scale, cross-disciplinary collaboration on big data tools, techniques and methods.