Unidata Reimagined: New Approaches to Community Data Services

University Corporation For Atmospheric Res, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

NSF Unidata engages and serves researchers and educators who are advancing the frontiers of their fields; it supports their efforts by creating opportunities for community members from many backgrounds and disciplines to share data, knowledge, methods, and expertise. As part of this effort, Unidata provides well-integrated data services and software tools that address the entire geoscientific data lifecycle, from locating and retrieving useful data, through the process of analyzing and visualizing data either locally or remotely, to curating and sharing the results. NSF Unidata serves more than 1,500 universities and colleges worldwide, which forms the core of a member community spanning thousands of government and research institutions that rely on Unidata products and services. Dramatic changes in the technological, scientific, and educational landscape are transforming the ways our community members conduct their research and educate new generations of scientists. To meet these challenges, Unidata is reimagining how the program can best fulfill its mission and focuses on four types of activities: 1) Providing Data and Tools; 2) Encouraging participation and building partnerships to increase engagement and collaboration; 3) Fostering action to advance adoption of data principles to promote Open Science 4) Providing innovative technical solutions by guiding the Earth system science community towards technical solutions that leverage innovations in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, modern open-source software, and cloud-centric tools. In advancing the aforementioned goals, the program will continue to expand its partnerships with educational institutions across the U.S. to provide training and scientific opportunities for students along with data services and technical support for researchers and educators. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.