News Release 11-052
Round Two: Digging Into Data Challenge
Social and computational scientists asked to design methods and tools for analyzing large data sets
Eight international funding agencies participate in humanities and social sciences grant challenge.
March 16, 2011
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
Round two of an international grant competition designed to spur cutting edge research in the humanities and social sciences begins today. Called the "Digging into Data Challenge," the competition promotes large-scale, international and interdisciplinary analysis of large data sets.
The competition asks interested scholars to design methods and tools to analyze large data sets associated with a million books, or a million pages of newspaper, or a million songs, for example. The best proposals receive research grants from an international group of funding agencies.
Teams comprised of researchers in the humanities, social sciences, computer sciences, information sciences and other fields may participate.
The first round of the Digging into Data Challenge sparked enormous interest from the international research community and led to funding eight cutting-edge projects. "The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) and the other funders hope to again attract a large number of outstanding proposals," said Elizabeth Tran, an associate program officer for SBE.
Last year, NSF was a Digging into Data Challenge cosponsor along with three other funding agencies: the United Kingdom's Joint Information Systems Committee, Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This year's challenge adds the United Kingdom's Arts & Humanities Research Council and Economic & Social Research Council, the Netherlands' Organization for Scientific Research and the United States' Institute of Museum and Library Services, bringing the total to eight research funders.
"By adding more partners on both the domestic and international sides, we will be able to increase the funding rate for the challenge and also its geographic scope," said Tran.
The projects funded in last year's first round ranged from a scheme to integrate a vast collection of textual, geographical and numerical data to create a visual presentation of U.S. railroads and their impact on society over time to another project that analyzes the spread of ideas during the Enlightenment based on a body of 53,000 letters written in the 18th-century.
"Because many of these projects would have difficultly securing adequate funding from any one agency, it is clear that the Digging into Data Challenge has helped to address a gap," said Tran.
Final applications will be due June 16, 2011. Further information about the competition and the application process can be found on the Digging into Data Challenge website.
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Bobbie Mixon, NSF, (703) 292-8485, email: bmixon@nsf.gov
Brett Bobley, National Endowment for the Humanities, (202) 606-8401, email: bbobley@neh.gov
Program Contacts
Elizabeth Tran, NSF, (703) 292-5338, email: etran@nsf.gov
Related Websites
Digging into Data Challenge: http://www.diggingintodata.org/Default.aspx
The U.S. National Science Foundation propels the nation forward by advancing fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. NSF supports research and people by providing facilities, instruments and funding to support their ingenuity and sustain the U.S. as a global leader in research and innovation. With a fiscal year 2023 budget of $9.5 billion, NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 40,000 competitive proposals and makes about 11,000 new awards. Those awards include support for cooperative research with industry, Arctic and Antarctic research and operations, and U.S. participation in international scientific efforts.
Connect with us online
NSF website: nsf.gov
NSF News: nsf.gov/news
For News Media: nsf.gov/news/newsroom
Statistics: nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards database: nsf.gov/awardsearch/
Follow us on social
Twitter: twitter.com/NSF
Facebook: facebook.com/US.NSF
Instagram: instagram.com/nsfgov