UW Data Science Team Leads $6 Million NSF Grant to Build, Test Computational Models

Dramatic increases in the scale and availability of data are profoundly reshaping the life sciences. As a result, data acquisition and availability -- from DNA sequencers to environmental sensors to parallel global studies -- are outpacing the capacity for analysis, including the development of models that represent knowledge of biological processes.

Thanks to a $6 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, researchers from the University of Wyoming, the University of Montana and the University of Nevada-Reno will be able to address pressing needs in the life sciences through research and education by this consortium. The title of the project is “Highly Predictive, Explanatory Models to Harness the Life Science Data Revolution.”

“This grant will fund a network of scientists to build and test computational statistical models for the life sciences,” says Alex Buerkle, a UW professor of botany and principal investigator (PI) of the grant. “It will grow the Data Science Center at the University of Wyoming.”

The center, established in September 2018, is designed to help educate and provide tools for analysis for undergraduate students up through faculty, and create unprecedented opportunities for researchers to engage in the cutting edge of data science.

The four-year NSF grant will start Sept. 1 and run through Aug. 31, 2024. The grant builds on previous NSF, private donor and state investments in data science at UW, Buerkle says.

Read the full story from University of Wyoming here.