NSF Awards $2 Million for Data Equity Research

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $2 million to researchers at the University of Washington (UW), University of Michigan (UM) and New York University (NYU) to establish a data analytics infrastructure that supports responsibility in integrative data science.

The researchers will receive the funds over the next two years to establish a Framework for Integrative Data Equity Systems (FIDES): a national institute for studying systems that enable research on sensitive data while preventing misuse and misinterpretation. The institute will develop data processing methods to address privacy, bias, and misuse; support data integration while controlling for fairness and equity; and establish interfaces for data science and domain experts to share expertise and best practices. Domains to be studied will include mobility, housing, education, economic indicators, and government transparency.

Urbanalytics director Bill Howe is co-principal investigator (PI) on the grant, which falls under the NSF’s Harnessing the Data Revolution Big Idea. The PI is H.V. Jagadish, director of the Michigan Institute for Data Science. Margaret Levenstein and Robert Hampshire of UM, and Julia Stoyanovich of NYU, are also co-PIs.

An article about the grant was recently published in the University of Michigan News.