Apply for a mini-grant to build an open source tool for reproducible research using Frictionless Data tooling, specs, and code base.
Today, Open Knowledge Foundation is launching the second round of the Frictionless Data Tool Fund, a mini-grant scheme offering grants of $5,000 to support individuals or organisations in developing an open tool for reproducible science or research built using the Frictionless Data specifications and software. We welcome submissions of interest until 17th May 2020.
The Tool Fund is part of the Frictionless Data for Reproducible Research project at Open Knowledge Foundation. This project, funded by the Sloan Foundation, applies our work in Frictionless Data to data-driven research disciplines, in order to facilitate reproducible data workflows in research contexts. At its core, Frictionless Data is a set of specifications for data and metadata interoperability, accompanied by a collection of software libraries that implement these specifications, and a range of best practices for data management. The core specification, the Data Package, is a simple and practical “container” for data and metadata.
With this announcement we are looking for individuals or organizations of scientists, researchers, developers, or data wranglers to build upon our existing open source tools and code base to create novel tooling for reproducible research. We will prioritize tools focusing on the following fields/domains of science: biology, genetics, neuroscience, ecology, geology, and bioinformatics. The fund will be accepting submissions from now until 17th May, with projects starting mid-June and to be completed by the end of the year.
This builds on the success of the 2019 Tool Fund, which funded the creation of four tools: a tool to convert the biodiversity DarwinCore Archive into Frictionless data packages; a tool that bundles Open Referral data as data packages; a tool to export Neuroscience Experiments System data as data packages; and a tool to import and export data packages in Google Sheets.
For this year’s Tool Fund, we would like the community to work on tools that can make a difference to researchers and scientists in the following domains: biology, genetics, neuroscience, ecology, geology, and bioinformatics.
Applications can be submitted by filling out this form by 17th May.
The Frictionless Data team will notify all applicants whether they have been successful or not at the very latest by mid-June. Successful candidates will then be invited for interviews before the final decision is given. We will base our choice on evidence of technical capabilities and also favour applicants who demonstrate an interest in practical use of the Frictionless Data Specifications. Preference will also be given to applicants who show an interest working with and maintaining these tools going forward.
For more questions on the fund, speak directly to us on our forum, on our Gitter chat or email us at frictionlessdata@okfn.org.
Lilly is the Product Manager for the Frictionless Data for Reproducible Research project. She has her PhD in neuroscience from Oregon Health and Science University, where she researched brain injury in fruit flies and became an advocate for open science and open data. Lilly believes that the future of research is open, and is using Frictionless Data tooling within the researcher community to make science more reproducible.
