This is the second in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at the General Assembly to be held on 27-28 October 2023.  Phil Bourne is a candidate for the role of CODATA Vice-President. He was nominated by the USA. 

CODATA Statement:  Impacting  the Next Generation

CODATA is a respected, impactful organization. Its strategic connection to the International Science Council gives it a rare platform for driving impact by serving and anticipating the data needs of the world’s scientists, data stewards, and citizen scientists. Hence my interest.

I have spent my whole 40+ year career working with data and the science of data in particular. My interest in data stems from my science as an established biomedical researcher having published over 350 papers, 4 books and started 4 companies. My journey with data led me to co-develop the RCSB Protein Data Bank which became an exemplar scientific database and associated ontology. I was an author of the FAIR principles, the first chief data officer of the National Institutes of Health, a co-founder and the first President of FORCE11, a past member of the US Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI), Founding Editor in Chief of the open access journal PLOS Computational Biology and currently the Stephenson Founding Dean of the School of Data Science at the University of Virginia where we are currently teaching data science to 1000 (!) undergraduate and graduate students. It is this later development which drove me to engage with CODATA as a member of the US National Committee and to write a blog on what I perceive as parallel universes which has received considerable attention, starting with the US National Committee for CODATA. Let me explain.

If I ask those 1000 students and the faculty that teach them at the University of Virginia what they know of CODATA, it will be mostly blank stares. This is unfortunate as both universes have so much to offer each other. To elaborate. CODATA has global reach, the ability to convene and a mandate to do so through a hardworking collection of volunteers. Data science is an explosive field being taught and fielding research in every discipline in just about every institution of higher education. Surely it is time to bring these groups together in ways previously unexplored. This is what I would like to help CODATA with. Data science has the Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA – I am on the Board) and a variety of chapters within computer science and engineering societies worldwide, but its organization is still very much in a formative stage. There lies the opportunity, a well established organization with a 57 year history meets a fledgling field at a time of unprecedented growth in that field driven by data that is impacting everyone on the planet. It’s time to impact the next generation.  There will not be a better time.

Talk is cheap. In terms of action. I can see various discussions  to begin the engagement. A real doozy would be to have CODATA and data scientists discuss the implication of data generation through generative AI. Thus, if elected, I would work with the CODATA leadership and broader community to find synergies and new areas of collaboration for academic data scientists and data practitioners and policy makers. Possible examples could include a broader partnership in the CODATA/RDA Schools of Research Data Science with ADSA, as well as bringing the successful models in WorldFAIR and other CODATA exemplars like the International Data Policy Committee and the DRUM task group to the academic data science community.   I stand ready to support the new CODATA strategic plan, to be a boundary spanner with other organizations and agencies, and to advise the CODATA secretariat and community as other disruptive technological and policy changes occur.

This is the first in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at the General Assembly to be held on 27-28 October 2023.  Andrew Young is a candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member. He was nominated by Australia. 

I am a plant ecological geneticist working in the field of biodiversity science at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia.  My primary role for the last eight years has been as Director of Australia’s National Research Collections (NRCA): https://www.csiro.au/en/Showcase/NRCA.  I am currently a member of Australia’s National Committee for Data in Science (Australian National CODATA committee) and Vice-Chair of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Executive: https://www.gbif.org/.

My main interest in development of data strategy is in the management of biodiversity datasets to improve ecological management and long-term environmental outcomes and the use of new tools and technologies for collecting and analysing biodiversity data at scale.  I am particularly interested the integration and mobilisation of new types of data from the world’s 2+ billion museum specimens (e.g. genomes, images, sounds, cultural information) and evolving frontiers in data analytics including genomics, high-throughput digitisation, machine learning and artificial intelligence as applied biological collections.   

As NRCA Director I have supported the development of a high-throughput specimen digitisation program as well as the complete refresh of collections data infrastructure.  These changes have significantly improved the digital maturity of Australia’s national collections to support the discoverability, global integration, and use of specimen data under FAIR principles (CODATA Priority 3: Data Stewardship).  The work has also seen significant progress made in advancing our capability in machine learning and AI-based analytics of specimens, in particular with regard to digital trait extraction and species identification.  This is proving valuable with regard to improving the technical capacity of Australia’s biosecurity sector (CODATA Priority 1: Making Data Work). All of these activities and programs have strong underpinning elements in terms of training technical staff, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows (CODATA Priority 4: Data Skills and Education).  I am committed to the development of the next generation of Australian scientists and for the last six years have chaired several of the national Fulbright Foundation Scholarship panels:    https://www.fulbright.org.au/.  

While undertaking these roles and activities I have continued to conduct my own research publishing 100+ peer-reviewed papers.  I have also initiated two major data-intensive national collaborative research programs.  The Biomes of Australian Soil Environments project (now part of Ausmicrobiome: https://www.australianmicrobiome.com/) has used metagenomic analysis of over 2000 sites across Australia to measure and map the continent’s soil microbiome using over 10 billion environmental DNA sequences.  The Environomics Future Science Platform (https://research.csiro.au/environomics/) has led the development in Australia of the application of scalable eDNA based approaches to environmental monitoring including the ongoing development of a National Biodiversity DNA Library.

I am passionate about the opportunities presented by emerging technologies to massively increase the richness of the global biodiversity data ecosystem and committed to taking advantage of the rapidly evolving ability to integrate and interrogate these different data streams to provide the information needed to manage the planet’s critical biological systems into the future in the face of global environmental change.