Challenge Enables Unprecedented Access to Data
and Tools from Leading Companies to Generate New Climate
Solutions
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.
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View the full release here:
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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 PulseGlobal 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 CorporationWestern 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 FundThe 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.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170309005466/en/
UN Global PulseFelicia Vacarelu,
646-723-4810felicia@unglobalpulse.orgorPorter Novelli for Western
Digital Corp.Lisa Neitzel,
408-738-7884lisa.neitzel@porternovelli.com
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