The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announced an open call for applications for its brand-new Data-Driven Discovery Investigator competition. The foundation seeks individuals who exemplify multidisciplinary, data-driven science, coalescing natural sciences with methods from statistics and computer science.
According to the foundation, “Data-Driven Discovery Initiative seeks to advance the people and practices of data-intensive science, to take advantage of the increasing volume, velocity, and variety of scientific data to make new discoveries. Within this initiative, we’re supporting data-driven discovery investigators — individuals who exemplify multidisciplinary, data-driven science, coalescing natural sciences with methods from statistics and computer science.”
These innovators are striking out in new directions and are willing to take risks with the potential of huge payoffs in some aspect of data-intensive science. Successful applicants must make a strong case for developments in the natural sciences (biology, physics, astronomy, etc.) or science enabling methodologies (statistics, machine learning, scalable algorithms, etc.), and applicants that credibly combine the two are especially encouraged. Note that the Science Program does not fund disease targeted research.
It is anticipated that the DDD initiative will make about 15 awards at ~$1,500,000 each, at $200K-$300K/year for five years.
Pre-applications are due Monday, February 24, 2014 by 5 pm Pacific Time.
Download the 2-page solicitation here.
A list of frequently asked questions can be downloaded here.