SIGKDD News

SIGKDD is announcing a funding opportunity through its Community Impact Program. The data science community has expanded its reach dramatically over the past few years, and SIGKDD would like to direct its success towards a broader positive data science community impact.

The goal of the program is to support projects that promote data science and help the data science community to grow, broaden, and diversify. Maximum project duration is one year. Funded projects will be required to present results of their work and outcomes at the annual KDD conference.

Selection Criteria

The KDD Community Impact Program is looking to fund projects that have the potential for maximum impact on society and expand outreach of data science—thereby strengthening the community. Sample topics include but are not limited to:

• Enhance data science community engagement
• Expand outreach of data science
• Increase diversity, inclusion, and participation in data science
• Increase societal impact of data science
• Influence public policy and decision making through data science
• Support for data science schools to broaden participation
• Support for data science hackathons and summer schools

The KDD Impact Program is not a research program. It focuses on projects that benefit the community and society. Research projects of any kind will not be funded. See examples of previously funded projects below.

Funding Amount

The KDD Community Impact Program intends to fund upto 10 projects with a funding range between $10k-$50k. All project costs must be fully justified. In exceptional cases, more funding may be allocated based on justification. Funding will be given as unrestricted funds (which usually means that minimal institutional overheads will be applied).

The call is open to participants who must be affiliated with a bona fide institution (university, non-profit organization, etc.). Funds are to be used for not-for-profit activities, and this program will not fund activities for which alternative funding is readily available.

Submission Guidelines

Project proposals are limited to at most 5 pages, single-spaced, using 12-point font and 1-inch margins, inclusive of illustrations and references. Pages beyond the page limit will not be read. Each proposal should include:

• An overview of the proposed project emphasizing its impact on the data science community and any unique aspects
• A description of concrete project plan and the expected outcomes
• A brief description of the PI and key personnel and institutions (who is involved) and their responsibilities
• A description of project tracking metrics (how will you measure success)
• The plan for continuation post the grant-period if relevant
• A brief justification of the need for the SIGKDD support (what you will be able to do and why you are not able to do otherwise)
• An estimated budget broken down by major areas, such as personnel, venue, equipment, consumable supplies, etc.
• A list/description of dependencies (e.g., availability of infrastructure, support, etc.)

Proposals can also include letters of support from other individuals or organizations. These letters will not be counted towards the page limit.

Selection Committee

Proposals that do not fit within the aims of the SIGKDD Community Impact Program will be summarily rejected without review. Eligible proposals will be judged by a committee comprising:

• Mohammed Zaki (Chair)
• Jure Leskovec
• Jian Pei
• Johannes Gehrke
• More TBD

Submission website

https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=kddcip20

Submission Deadlines

• Submission deadline: June 15, 2020
• Announcement of awards: August 1, 2020
• Project presentations: KDD 2021
• Project duration: 1 year

Previously Funded Projects

Training the Next Generation of African Data Scientists, Kenya, $30,120

Project leaders: Isaac Markus (IBM Research Africa) and Audrey Cheng (The Moringa School)

Cover organizations: IBM Research Africa and the Moringa School

Budding Data Scientists Hackathon, Singapore, $20,500

Project leader: Hui Xiang Chua

Cover organization: Hwa Chong Institution

Community perspectives on the use of algorithms by Government, New Zealand, $50,000

Project leader: Professor Rhema Vaithianathan

Cover organization: Centre for Social Data Analytics (Auckland, New Zealand)

Women Data Science Leaders in Russia, Russia, $13,600

Project leaders: Alena Suvorova and Valeria A. Ivaniushina

Cover organization: National Research University Higher School of Economics

Summer Academy in Data Science for High School Students, United States, $50,000

Project leaders: Bamshad Mobasher, Lucia Dettori, Raffaella Settimi, and Daniela Raicu

Cover organisation: DePaul University

Data Science for Social Good Marketplace, United States, $50,000

Project leader: Rayid Ghani

Cover Organization: Center for Data Science and Public Policy, University of Chicago

Empowering Community Members to Understand and Use Big Data and Big Data Methods, United States, $35,785

Project leader: Lisa Schilling, MD, MSPH

Cover organization: University of Colorado School of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine