Eschenfelder, Downey awarded Sloan Foundation grant for data archives project

September 25th 2014 Simon Kuran
Natural & Physical Sciences
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Eschenfelder Eschenfelder

Professors Kristin Eschenfelder and Greg Downey have been awarded an $180,535, three-year research grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to investigate the sustainability of social science data archives from a global information perspective.

Eschenfelder is the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies, while Downey is the associate dean for social sciences in the College of Letters & Science and an Evjue-Bascom Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the School of Library and Information Studies.

Downey Downey

They will partner with Kalpana Shankar of University College Dublin on the study, which will highlight changes in the social science data landscape from the 1960s through today (including open data initiatives), the shifting challenges confronting data archives stemming from changes in research practices, and the strategies employed by archives to manage change in both the United States and Europe.

This socio-technical study of information infrastructure will inform planning, development and management of data archives across many fields of science.