Data Integration Initiative: Planning Document

During 2017, CODATA initiated and led a discussion with data science groups and international scientific unions and associations about the timeliness of a major initiative on interdisciplinary data integration. Meetings at the ICSU HQ in Paris in June 2017 and at the Royal Society of London in November 2017 produced a report and communiqué supporting a long-term initiative and outlining some of the essential issues to be addressed. The key priorities for this initiative are to address data integration in support of major global challenges and to develop relevant data capacities across all the disciplines of science. An ad hoc steering group was created to plan how these should be carried forward, comprising: CODATA: Geoffrey Boulton – President; Simon Hodson – Executive Director. ICSU: Heide Hackmann – Executive Director. Application Domain leaders: Laura Merson - Infectious Disease Outbreaks; Virginia Murray – Disaster Risk Reduction; Stephen Passmore – Resilient Cities. Data Scientists: Simon Cox – CSIRO; Lesley Wyborn – ANU; Bob Hanisch – NIST; Phil Archer – Consultant. Supporting the steering group in making contributions to the initiative are: Gisbert Glaser - ICSU; Katsia Paulavets - ICSU; Bill Michener – DataONE; Kevin Blanchard - PHE; John Broome – CODATA. The formal governance of the initiative is yet to be determined. This planning paper is an outcome of a meeting of the steering and supporting group on 19 January 2018. It is designed as a first scoping of the purpose, structure and roadmap for the initiative, and will shortly be made available to the community of practice represented by the attendees and invitees of the 2017 meetings. Its primary use is as a live document for planning purposes. It is not an early draft of a bid for support or funding, though it is likely to be a source text for such.