Overview

The NSF-funded regional Big Data Innovation Hubs were created in 2015 to facilitate data science opportunities around grand challenges. The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub (MBDH) seeks to catalyze new activities in our stakeholder community by competitively allocating resources for “Community Development and Engagement” (CDE) opportunities in the 12-state Midwest region.

We invite proposals for collaborative activities (see below) that will further develop the MBDH community in at least one of the Hub’s five Priority Areas and / or one of the Hub’s cross-cutting theme areas of Data Science Education and Cyberinfrastructure:

1. Water Quality

2. Smart, Connected, and Resilient Communities

3. Advanced Materials and Manufacturing

4. Health and Biomedicine

5. Digital Agriculture

We particularly encourage activities that bring together partners from academia, industry, government, and NGOs / not-for-profit organizations, and that introduce new partners to data science, including historically underrepresented groups.

Individual investigator research projects are outside the scope of this call. 

Proposal Template and Scope

Download the proposal template (.docx)

Proposals submitted for Community Development and Engagement (CDE) activities could include, but are not limited to:

• Proposal development workshops that address capacity building in one or more of the MBDH Priority Areas, or which help the Hub move toward long-term sustainability. These could include NSF solicitations related to the Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) program, or other relevant programs at NSF, other funding agencies, or foundations.

• Development of curricula or best practices for online data science education to address workforce development opportunities, particularly for non-traditional students.

• Activities around research data management topics, such as developing data sharing agreements, data quality standards and best practices, or use cases for interdisciplinary data collaboration.

• Domain expert driven hackathons and data challenges, particularly those focused on student mentoring and skill development.

• Summer Institutes for data science education, including for early career researchers.

• Train-the-Trainer events on data science topics that focus on one of the MBDH priority areas.

• Efforts to extend data science training and workforce development to non-traditional students, such as local government employees and community organizations such as non-profits, or to members of under-represented groups.

Preference will be given to activities or events occurring within the 12-state Midwest region, and which are open to participants from outside the host institution. (See Eligibility requirements, below.)

Successful proposals will help to reduce the friction between the development and use of data and data infrastructure and will help build capacity in data science expertise in the Midwest through workforce development, training, and education.

Proposals should include a draft agenda or project plan for the activity, and describe how the results of the community engagement activity are anticipated to move the proposed area forward. Examples of engagement outcomes might include drafting proposals for funding, white papers, best practices documents, curricula, or learning outcomes for training events.

Awards

Awards will be made in the form of activity planning support, administrative and logistical support, event facilitation, and Participant Support for attendees (especially students and qualifying speakers). Logistics will be coordinated by the MBDH on behalf of successful proposers if those services are not available from the proposers’ home institutions. No direct funding will be awarded to the proposers.

Budgets should be less than $25,000. Budgets should include all event planning or facilitation elements that the MBDH would be coordinating on behalf of the proposers, clearly separated from elements that are in the proposer’s control. Proposers must follow NSF PAPPG rules, including developing codes of conduct for events.

Activities should be completed within 18 months of award. Due to the current outbreak of COVID-19, virtual events and activities are encouraged. The MBDH Seed Fund Steering Committee may review its guidelines regarding award completion as the situation evolves.

We anticipate making 2-4 awards in this cycle, with other submission cycles potentially occurring later in the year, subject to availability of funds. 

Eligibility

• Lead proposer(s) (PI) must be primarily affiliated with an academic, governmental, or non-profit organization within the 12-state Midwest Big Data Hub region (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin).

• Lead PIs are limited to one proposal per funding cycle as lead proposer.

• To broaden participation, grow the MBDH community, and ensure a transparent and fair process, proposers who are current PIs or co-PIs of the MBDH must include collaborators who are not currently affiliated with the MBDH.

• MBDH Seed Fund Steering Committee members must recuse themselves from the review of any proposals from their home institutions, or that involve their own work, or that of their family members, current students or employees, or current collaborators.

Participation and review will follow standard NSF conflict of interest policies.

Deliverables

• A brief final written report of the project activities and outcomes is required, due within 90 days of the completion of the project. The scope of the report is dependent on the nature of the project activities.

  • The MBDH is required to report data about the number and characteristics of participants in engagement activities, and information about outcomes and impacts.

  • Successful applicants are required to collaborate with the Hub’s administration and external evaluators to develop and implement measures to gather the aforementioned required data.

• Awardees are strongly encouraged to make content, resources, tools, etc. developed during CDE activities available to the broader stakeholder community, as appropriate, using standard NSF practices, open source, FAIR, or other models as suggested guidelines. 

• Awardees are also encouraged to work with the MBDH Communications team to make the project visible within the region through the Hub’s communications channels, as well as via webinars and events.

• In all presentations, papers, posters, and other public communications, awardees should acknowledge support from the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub and the National Science Foundation under NSF award # 1916613. 

Criteria

Reviewers are members of the MBDH “Seed Fund Steering Committee”. Steering Committee members are selected from the at-large MBDH stakeholder community, are not members of the Hub’s leadership team, and do not receive compensation. They operate independently, represent the diversity of Hub constituents and Hub areas of interest, and demonstrate independence of judgment and expertise in the area assigned to them.

Successful proposals will support community engagement via a well-defined activity that is intended to advance one or more of the Hub’s priority areas and/or cross-cutting themes. Such priority areas and cross-cutting themes can be consulted on the MBDH website.

The following criteria will be used by the MBDH Seed Fund Steering Committee to prioritize funding: 

• Which goals of the MBDH does the proposed activity help advance, and how?

• How does the activity help advance one or more of the priority areas and/or cross-cutting themes of the Hub?

• What are the expected deliverables/outcomes? 

• Does the proposal’s activities and timeline match its stated goals?

• Is the proposed timeline realistic?

• Is the proposed budget realistic for the activities?

• How critical is a CDE award to the probability of success of the proposed activity?

• Does the proposal and/or PIs grow the MBDH community by broadening participation through collaborators who have not interacted with the MBDH previously?

• How does the activity engage new participants to the Hub community?

• How does the activity engage under-represented groups that are not currently involved with the Hub?

• Does the proposal facilitate ongoing engagement of communities new to the Hub?

• Does the project include plan(s) for continued collaboration or pursuit of external funding from Federal agencies, foundations, or industry?

• Do the proposers meet the eligibility criteria? 

Awards are made subject to the availability of funds. The review process will follow standard NSF conflict of interest procedures.

Timeline

About

Under the terms of the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub Cooperative Agreement with NSF, the MBDH must award a portion of its budget as seed funds via a competitive process. The seed funds are administered by the MBDH Seed Fund Steering Committee, composed of members of the MBDH stakeholder community who are not members of the leadership team, and do not receive compensation.

Contact

Potential applicants may contact the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub to learn more about the Community Development and Engagement program and the Hub’s broader efforts to build a data science community in the region. Email: info@midwestbigdatahub.org