SoBigData Mission
SoBigData aims to become the European open science research infrastructure for social mining according to EU values of fairness and privacy protection.
SoBigData provides a broad set of services, data, methods, training materials and technologies for Data Science within operative guidelines including EU Ethical, Legal, Social, Economic, and Cultural (ELSEC) values. FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and FACT (Fair, Accurate, Confidential, and Transparent) principles are key aspects in the research infrastructure development.
What SoBigData does
SoBigData offers an integrated ecosystem of tools for data scientists and AI researchers to design and develop big data experiments in social science. The infrastructure supports innovation and cutting-edge science in collaboration with a network of experts, research institutions, and industries. SoBigData creates synergies with public bodies and policy-makers to answer societal questions and optimize public resources usage.
To accomplish its goals, SoBigData offers several services and facilities.
TRAINING
Resources for training and education on social data and AI to promote the training of the next generation of responsible data science researchers.
CATALOGUE
A catalogue of resources such as datasets, algorithms, technologies, methods, and libraries for social mining and AI in tailored virtual research environments.
TRANSNATIONAL ACCESS
A Mobility program for researchers and professionals in data and social science to visit the infrastructure nodes where start collaborations and access data and computational facilities.
PRIVACY RISK EVALUATION
An evaluation of ethical and legal risks for users’ experiments and provides tailored solutions in terms of practical guidelines and specific suggestions.
The RI may help in creating collaborations between research institutions, public bodies, and industries facilitating the interconnections between them.
SoBigData story
The infrastructure was born in 2015 with the EC H2020 SoBigData project (g.a. 654024) to integrate existing EU platforms on various social mining topics. Initially, the consortium was formed by computer scientists from twelve institutions and seven countries. The first release came out in 2016, including some of the functionalities inherited by the initial platforms.
In 2020 the new project EC H2020 SoBigData++ started (g.a. No. 871042), enlarging the consortium to the experts in different fields collaborating during the first project. Thirty-one partners form the new consortium from 12 countries.
In 2021 the research infrastructure was selected to be part of the ESFRI roadmap as relevant digital infrastructure in the European Research Area (ERA).
In 2022 SoBigData was included in the top relevant infrastructure in Italy and won the National Recovery and Resilience Plan call (NRRP) to strengthen its capabilities.