New NSF center will advance, broaden and catalyze environmental data science

Understanding the impacts of climate change and the loss of biodiversity, and predicting and preparing for extreme environmental disturbances such as wildfires, floods and drought, require combining and synthesizing data sets that provide information at varying scales.

To support the analysis and integration of these data and advance the use of data-intensive approaches and training in environmental science, the NSF has announced the creation of the Environmental Data Science Innovation and Inclusion Lab, or ESIIL (pronounced "easel"), through a $20 million, five-year award to the University of Colorado Boulder. Scientist Jennifer Balch is the principal investigator. The new synthesis center is funded jointly by NSF's Directorate for Biological Sciences and Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure.

ESIIL will collaborate with NSF's CyVerse and will hold inclusion as a core principle and method of diversifying environmental data. ESIIL will also catalyze use-inspired research through cross-sector partnerships, Innovation Summits and Earth Hackathons.