Georgia Tech Awarded $1.5M to Build People-Centric Network for National Research Database

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a group of Georgia Tech researchers $1.5 million to help create the first-ever prototype open-knowledge network. The research team includes School of Computer Science Assistant Professor Kexin Rong.

Proto-OKN will be a free, publicly available, searchable database containing troves of research data from major U.S. government agencies. The project aims to fuel the next data revolution to support data-centric solutions for societal challenges.

Unlike the other 17 teams working on the NSF effort, Georgia Tech’s contribution will focus on the most crucial element for scientific breakthroughs: people. The team’s primary goal is to raise visibility for researchers often left out of the current research collaboration landscape.

“The current research collaboration landscape leans toward ‘winner takes all,’ and because extremely successful researchers are more visible, they become even more successful,” Rong said. “With this project, we want to give talented researchers more visibility, hopefully increasing their chances of success.”

To learn more about this project, read the full story from the Georgia Tech News Center.