Investing in Science, Engineering, and Education for the Nation’s Future

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Agency Priority Goals (APG) and Long-term Performance Goals

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Priority Goal 2: Improve the nation’s capacity in data science by investing in the development of human capital and infrastructure.

The rapidity of data creation is outpacing the development of new tools to process rapidly growing, complex data sets. There is a pressing need both for new tools and for people with the expertise to develop and use those tools. NSF is in the beginning stages of creating mechanisms to catalyze the development of infrastructure and people to address the challenges posed by this new flood of data.

Using the agency’s ability to convene diverse sets of stakeholders, NSF will promote multi-stakeholder partnerships through supporting workshops and follow-on activities that bring together representatives of industry, academia, not-for-profit organizations, and other entities to address current and future big-data challenges. NSF will also leverage existing programs to support the creation of more researchers and students competent in the deep analytical and
technical skills required to address those challenges. NSF intends to achieve this priority goal by September 30, 2015.

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