NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global Pulse, the United Nations innovation initiative on big data, and Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC), a global leader in data storage technologies and solutions, announced a partnership today to launch the “Data for Climate Action” challenge.
Data for Climate Action is an unprecedented open innovation challenge to harness data science and big data from the private sector to fight climate change. Data scientists, researchers, and innovators from around the world are encouraged to apply and submit their proposals at DataForClimateAction.org by 10 April 2017.
“Driving effective action on climate change requires not only climate data, but also rich information about human behavior,” said Robert Kirkpatrick, Director of UN Global Pulse. “Big data can provide dynamic feedback on how communities affect and are affected by the climate system, and enable innovation to increase sustainability and resilience. This data is primarily held by companies, like those participating in Data for Climate Action.”
With support from the Skoll Global Threats Fund, this global challenge has galvanized a diverse coalition of companies from multiple industries and countries to participate through acts of ‘data philanthropy’. The challenge will offer researchers an opportunity to gain unprecedented access to national, regional, and global datasets—anonymized and aggregated to protect privacy—and robust tools to support their research.
Companies contributing data for the challenge include:
- BBVA Data & Analytics, a financial data analytics company
- Crimson Hexagon, an enterprise social media analytics company
- Earth Networks, a weather and lightning sensor network operator
- Nielsen, a global measurement and analytics company
- Orange, a global telecommunications provider
- Planet, an earth-imaging satellite network operator
- Plume Labs, an environmental data sciences company
- Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management and automation
- Waze, a free, real-time community-based traffic and navigation app
In addition, researchers may apply to receive cloud-computing support from Microsoft, and visual analytics support from Tableau.
“As the world’s largest data storage company, we understand the power and promise of data, and are passionate about its use as a catalyst for change,” said Dave Tang, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Data Center Systems Business Unit, Western Digital. “We are proud to partner with the United Nations Global Pulse team to not only help build the narrative and framework for the Data for Climate Action challenge, but to amplify and drive engagement around the data for social good movement. We look forward to the insights and solutions generated from this challenge and the possibilities they represent for our future.”
About the Challenge:
Data for Climate Action will target three areas relevant to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal on climate action (SDG 13): climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and the linkages between climate change and the broader 2030 Agenda.
The challenge aims to generate original research papers and tools that demonstrate how data-driven innovation can inform on-the-ground solutions and transform efforts to fight climate change. It builds upon the model of data science competitions pioneered by organizations like Kaggle, and company-specific initiatives to share big data for the public good, such as the “Data for Development” challenges hosted by Orange.
Researchers who are selected to participate in Data for Climate Action will have four months to conduct their research. A diverse panel of experts in climate change and data science will evaluate final submissions based on their methodology, relevance, and potential impact. Winners will be announced in November of 2017.
To submit an application or find additional details on the challenge, visit the official website at DataForClimateAction.org.
To read more about Western Digital Corporation’s support for the data for good movement, visit DataMakesPossible.com.
Contributing companies:
Elena Alfaro, CEO, BBVA Data & Analytics:
“At BBVA Data &
Analytics we believe in the moral obligation of data-driven
organizations to share data and contribute to society. In our previous
collaboration with UN Global Pulse, we discovered that aggregated
financial data can yield insights into how crises affect vulnerable
populations. Together we demonstrated a novel method to measure
communities’ economic resilience to natural disasters. The Data for
Climate Action challenge represents another concrete way to put data to
work for climate action, and we look forward to contributing once again,
with our aggregated financial data and our excellence in data science."
Jim Pinkelman, Senior Director, Microsoft Research:
“We are proud
to be supporting this important global challenge, and we look forward to
providing Microsoft Azure to further the work of these innovative
researchers.”
Lisa Errion, Vice President for International Public Policy, Nielsen:
"Nielsen
is pleased to be part of this innovative challenge as part of our Data
for Good initiative to enhance the use of data to advance social good."
Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière, Senior Executive Vice President of
Innovation, Marketing and Technologies, Orange:
“We are confident
that Data for Climate Action will help foster research on the potential
of data to address climate change on a global scale. Orange’s
involvement with the challenge is a natural continuation of our open
innovation initiatives focused on how big data science can contribute to
sustainable development and social welfare. This illustrates our ongoing
commitment to facilitate solutions to help address social and
environmental issues for the entire global community.”
Will Marshall, CEO and Co-Founder, Planet:
“Addressing climate
change will require many actors working with the most powerful tools
available. At Planet, we’re contributing to this vision by imaging the
whole world, every day, and making change on Earth visible and
accessible. We are delighted to collaborate with UN Global Pulse on the
Data for Climate Action challenge, and to put the most up-to-date data
about our planet into the hands of innovators who can help make progress
on one of the most urgent issues of our time."
Romain Lacombe, CEO and Co-Founder, Plume Labs:
“Plume Labs is
delighted to be taking part in Data for Climate Action by providing
access to the Plume Air Cloud, our atmospheric pollution API. Air
pollution is both an environmental and a health crisis. Through open
data and innovative solutions we can work together to make the air we
breathe more transparent.”
Ron Sznaider, SVP of Cloud Services, Schneider Electric:
"As a
global leader in energy management and automation, Schneider Electric is
transforming the weather forecasting and agricultural markets by driving
innovation that enables farming operations to make critical, real-time
decisions. We look forward to providing researchers with access to
weather data through Data for Climate Action, so that they can generate
new and innovative solutions for farmers and communities around the
world.”
Neal Myrick, Director of Social Impact at Tableau & Director, Tableau
Foundation:
“This Challenge is a terrific opportunity to bring data
visualization skills and insights to the global community of scientists,
policymakers, innovators, and advocates fighting for climate action.
We’re thrilled to do our part to make that data accessible and
actionable for all those working for a better future.”
Adam Fried, Global Partnerships, Waze:
“Using Waze real-time,
crowdsourced insights, Waze Connected Citizens Program partners have led
data-driven experimentations to solve varied mobility challenges,
improving emergency response times and hyperlocal traffic management.
We’re excited to see how researchers participating in the Data for
Climate Action Challenge can expand upon the impact of the Connected
Citizens Program to accelerate climate action.”
About UN Global Pulse
Global Pulse is a UN initiative
working to promote awareness of the opportunities big data presents for
sustainable development and humanitarian action, forge public-private
data sharing partnerships, generate high-impact analytical tools and
approaches through its network of Pulse Labs and drive broader adoption
of useful innovations across the UN system. Global Pulse is a leading
voice in the data philanthropy movement and an advocate for data
responsibility. For more information, visit www.unglobalpulse.org
or follow on Twitter @UNGlobalPulse.
About Western Digital Corporation
Western Digital
Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is an industry-leading provider of storage
technologies and solutions that enable people to create, leverage,
experience and preserve data. The company addresses ever-changing market
needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage
solutions with customer-focused innovation, high efficiency, flexibility
and speed. Our products are marketed under the HGST, SanDisk and WD
brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers
and consumers. Learn more about Western Digital’s #DataMakesPossible
initiative.
About Skoll Global Threats Fund
The mission of the Skoll
Global Threats Fund is to confront global threats imperiling humanity by
seeking solutions, strengthening alliances, and spurring the actions
needed to safeguard the future. The Fund proactively works to find,
initiate, or co-create breakthrough ideas and/or activities that can
have large-scale impact. Learn more at www.skollglobalthreats.org.
