Data to Knowledge to Action: Building New Partnerships

Dozens of public and private organizations met at a White House-sponsored event on November 12, 2013 to describe their contributions to an inspiring array of collaborations that embrace a common theme: sharing resources and drawing upon sophisticated tools to plumb the depths of huge data sets in order to derive greater value for American consumers and grow the Nation’s economy.

The event, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, was co-sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Networking and Information Technology R&D (NITRD) program, which represents the information technology portfolios of 18 Federal agencies. It featured scores of new announcements by corporations, educational institutions, professional organizations, and others that—in collaboration with Federal departments and agencies and state and local governments—are answering President Obama’s call for partnerships that can enhance national priorities, including economic growth and job creation, education and health, energy and sustainability, public safety and national security, and global development.

(NSF/Sandy Schaeffer Photography)

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Press Releases and Fact Sheets

• • White House Press Release: “Data to Knowledge to Action” Event Highlights Innovative Collaborations to Benefit Americans
  • Fact Sheet: Progress by Federal Agencies
  • Fact Sheet: New Announcements
  • NSF Press Release: NSF advances national efforts enabling data-driven discovery

Event Materials

• • Plenary and Breakout Session Agenda
  • Technical Showcase Agenda
  • Speaker Biographies
  • Presentation: Building New Partnerships, Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for OSTP
  • Presentation: Harnessing The Potential of Data Scientists and Big Data for Scientific Discovery, Ed Lazowska, University of Washington, Saul Perlmutter, UC Berkeley, Yann Le Cun, New York University, Josh Greenberg, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Chris Mentzel, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
  • Presentation: Innovation, Research & Development, and Education and Workforce Development Breakout Sessions Report Back, Christy Wilson, Splunk, Michael Rappa, North Carolina State University, Stanley Ahalt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Media

• • Video Webcast: Event welcome, partnership announcements, and briefings
  • Video Webcast: Panel discussion

Associated Events

• • White House Big Data Partners Workshop – May 3, 2013

Select Press Highlights

• • November 12, 2013 — White House promotes new partnerships as it seeks to make better use of ‘big data’

“The Obama administration plans Tuesday to announce a new set of partnerships that enlist private companies, nonprofits, academics and others in an effort to harness big data to solve national problems. The new alliances come more than a year and a half after the administration established $200 million in big data initiatives aimed at sorting through the massive reams of information collected by the government to glean new insights.” (Source: Washington Post) Read the article.

• • November 12, 2013 — Program Seeks to Nurture ‘Data Science Culture’ at Universities

“[The problem of data silos], among others, is the focus of a new five-year project, involving three universities and supported by $37.8 million in funding from the Moore Foundation and the Sloan Foundation. The three universities in the partnership are New York University, the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley. The program is being announced today in Washington at an event organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, to highlight initiatives being taken by government, industry and academia to advance data-driven scientific discovery and technological progress.” (Source: New York Times) Read the article.