ICPSR part of four-university "Sustainable Environment-Actionable Data" project
ICPSR has partnered with the University of Michigan School of Information and three other universities in the new "Sustainable Environment-Actionable Data" project that will create better methods for data sharing among scientists and researchers in the new and growing field of sustainability.
The other partners are Indiana University, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The NSF has awarded a two-year, $2 million grant to the project, with $8 million anticipated over the course of five years. Margaret Hedstrom at the U-M School of Information is the principal investigator.
“To date these data have been difficult to obtain and use because disciplines across the natural and social sciences collect, describe, and store their data in different ways,” Hedstrom says. “The data could have significant value if it were possible to connect the data collectors with potential users, and if it were easy for individuals to search for, aggregate, and maintain valuable data for the long term.”
ICPSR Director George Alter added: “As data archivists, our role in SEAD is to act as a link to the social science community. We are going to create the tools to help people curate data as it is being collected and embed them in metadata that will be accessible far into the future.”
Nov 11, 2011