Dutch Data Prize 2012
Political Mashup and OpenEarth win 2012 Data Prize
This year the Dutch Data Prize goes to Political Mashup (Data Prize for the Humanities and Social Sciences) and OpenEarth (Data Prize for the Exact and Technical Sciences).
OpenEarth: the best of the best
Professor J. T. Fokkema was also extremely enthusiastic about OpenEarth, winner of the Data Prize for the Exact and Technical Sciences. “It was a privilege to be able to study the datasets submitted. We decided to award the prize to the best of the best, OpenEarth, on the basis of originality, accessibility and reproducibility. Because,” followed Fokkema, “Data collection is only half the battle. Data classification and compression are without a doubt just as important. The data can then be shared with colleagues and other interested parties. The method OpenEarth uses to collect and publicly disseminate research data is second to none, making OpenEarth the rightful winner of the Data Prize.”
Political Mashup: an indispensable product
During the presentation on 18 October, Professor W.W. Mijnhardt, jury chairman for the Data Prize for the Humanities and Social Sciences, said that the jury members had unanimously agreed to award the prize to Political Mashup. Full of praise, he shared their reasons with the audience: “Extensive, a large variety of sources, accessible to a wider public and immensely relevant for society; that's what characterises Political Mashup.” He followed enthusiastically with: “Political Mashup enables every citizen to gain a better understanding of the political process, with regard to both the distant and recent past, and to effectively monitor his or her elected representative. As such it improves the reliability (and repeatability) of political and historical research, but also allows citizens to be true democratic citizens.”
Winners (from left to right) Maarten Marx (Political Mashup) and Thijs Damsma, Gerben de Boer and Mark van Koningsveld (OpenEarth). Photo: Bart van Vliet
The 2012 Dutch Data Prize
The Dutch Data Prize - a prize for researchers who collect and document research data and make it accessible to the sciences - is a joint initiative of 3TU.Datacentrum and DANS. There were two prizes this year. In addition to the nominees, invited parties and jury members, the event was also attended by B.J. van den Bergh MKM, who until recently was Director of Research and Science Policy at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, and Professor J.J. Engelen, chairman of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The latter two presented the prizes to the proud researchers.
No losers
There are no losers when it comes to the Data Prize. Besides Political Mashup and OpenEarth,
• Geoplaza
• Interviewproject Nederlandse Veteranen
• Signatures of Majorana fermions
• Water Footprint
were nominated. The winners went home with: a sculpture, €7500 to make the dataset even more accessible and an all-expenses-paid dinner for the groups of researchers involved in generating and making accessible the respective datasets.
More information
More information about the Data Prize and, for example, an event report of the presentation can be found at DANS, or contact Mr Jeroen Rombouts (3TU.Datacentrum).
