Obama Administration Unveils “Big Data” Initiative: Announces $200 Million in New R&D Investments
abernard102@gmail.com 2012-08-20
Summary:
[Use the link above to access the full text of the announcement from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)] “Aiming to make the most of the fast-growing volume of digital data, the Obama Administration today announced a “Big Data Research and Development Initiative.” By improving our ability to extract knowledge and insights from large and complex collections of digital data, the initiative promises to help solve some the Nation’s most pressing challenges. To launch the initiative, six Federal departments and agencies today announced more than $200 million in new commitments that, together, promise to greatly improve the tools and techniques needed to access, organize, and glean discoveries from huge volumes of digital data.
‘In the same way that past Federal investments in information-technology R&D led to
dramatic advances in supercomputing and the creation of the Internet, the initiative we
are launching today promises to transform our ability to use Big Data for scientific
discovery, environmental and biomedical research, education, and national security,’
said Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy. To make the most of this opportunity, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)—in concert with several Federal departments and agencies—created the Big Data Research and Development Initiative to: [1] Advance state-of-the-art core technologies needed to collect, store, preserve, manage, analyze, and share huge quantities of data. [2] Harness these technologies to accelerate the pace of discovery in science and engineering, strengthen our national security, and transform teaching and learning; and [3] Expand the workforce needed to develop and use Big Data technologies. National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health - Core Techniques and Technologies for Advancing Big Data Science & Engineering ‘Big Data’ is a new joint solicitation supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will advance the core scientific and technological means of managing, analyzing, visualizing, and extracting useful information from large and diverse data sets. This will accelerate scientific discovery and lead to new fields of inquiry that would otherwise not be possible. NIH is particularly interested in imaging, molecular, cellular, electrophysiological, chemical, behavioral, epidemiological, clinical, and other data sets related to health and disease. In addition to its funding of the Big Data solicitation, NSF is also: [1] Encouraging research universities to develop interdisciplinary graduate programs to prepare the next generation of data scientists and engineers;
[2] Funding a $10 million project based at the University of California, Berkeley, that
will integrate three powerful approaches for turning data into information -
machine learning, cloud computing, and crowd sourcing; [3] Providing the first round of grants to support ‘EarthCube’ – a system that will allow geoscientists to access, analyze and share information about our planet; [4] Issuing a $2 million award for a research training group to support training for undergraduates to use graphical and visualization techniques for complex data. [5] Providing $1.4 million in support for a focused research group of statisticians and biologists to tell us about protein structures and biological pathways. [6] Convening researchers across disciplines to determine how Big Data can transform teaching and learning...” [Use the link above to read additional Information from the announcement on projects and funding from the Department of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy, and the US Geological Survey.]