How many sizes are needed to fit all research data? Todd Vision Associate Director for Informatics National Evolutionary Synthesis Center Associate Professor of Biology University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ESIP Summer 2013, Chapel Hill, NC Data Decadal Survey Panel © AAAS

My impeccable credentials Not an Earth Scientist Blissfully ignorant of whole Decadal Survey process until a few weeks ago!

My nonetheless strongly held opinion We need a national roadmap for investment in basic science data infrastructure The decadal survey process seems as good a way to go about it as any

The OSTP public access memo is a rare opportunity The desiderata for data are well articulated But funding must be found from within existing budgets And mechanisms to ensure interagency coordination are weak Soon we will have approximately 20 responses to evaluate and compare

The issues cut across disciplines Balancing infrastructure, research investment, workforce development Leveraging commercial innovations Coordinating across agencies Coordinating w/ international efforts Ensuring buy-in from the research community Assessing success

Differences within disciplines are mirrored between them Data assets range from reference collections to one-offs Things vary predictably along that continuum  Approaches to data curation  Preservability  Return on investment in specialized infrastructure

Narrow scope = narrow impact = narrow opportunities Unique feature of the moment is that all research agencies will be laying their cards on the table Unique opportunity to  identify cross-cutting investments, priorities  receive support from multiple agencies  to build on OSTP and RDA’s momentum

Target actions that agencies can take Investments and, secondarily, policies Can not no so easily guide the actions of researchers, research institutions, societies, journals, etc. Individually, research community voices tend toward private benefits A common voice could have tremendous influence on government actions

Research is international A survey of US policies and investments in relation to other countries would be enlightening What opportunities are being missed? What mechanisms exist for greater international cooperation? Where can and should the US ‘compete’?

Governance and sustainability Are there ways to ensure future interagency cooperation? International cooperation? How to combine infrastructure funding with private investment and continued funding for infrastructure innovation? How to ensure responsiveness to changing practice?

Risks Not adding value beyond disciplinary efforts like EarthCube The temptation to propose some politically attractive megaproject Forcing premature consensus where experimentation is needed Suppressing grassroots initiatives

What does success look like? The process itself needs to consider what ROI we should maximize Is there  Buy-in to the process and conclusions?  Investment that follows recommendations?  An increase in cross-agency, cross- disciplinary collabocoordination?

What is missing from this conversation? Discussion of data in the context of  Software  Physical collections  Scholarly literature

We need a national roadmap for investment in basic science data infrastructure. The decadal survey process seems as good a way to go about it as any

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