Data Core Seed Funding

Discovering APPLIED INNOVATIVE IMPACTFUL Data Solutions

Seed funding is available to UMass Amherst faculty to accelerate and support new research directions or ideas. You can apply for one of three levels of engagement:

One Week Engagement

Review the current codebase
Develop a scope of the end product
Assess a feasibility

Project Example

EagleCam

Improve a video analysis model for identifying the type of food (rodent, lizard, fish) that an eagle is bringing to its nest for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

Prototype code
Thorough review of code

Project Example

International Phonetic Alphabet Transcription

Fine tune a speech recognition model to use the international phonetic alphabet.

Serious analysis
Usable prototype

Project Example

The Nature Conservancy: Animal Image Detection for Wildlife Cameras

Use a computer-vision algorithm to automatically detect whether or not a photograph contains an animal for The Nature Conservancy to use with trail-cam footage.

Seed funding is only available to UMass Amherst faculty

Nonprofit organization looking for ways to work with us? Check out our Data Science for the Common Good (DS4CG) program.

LEARN MORE

SEED FUNDING APPLICATION

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

APPLY NOW

Apply by sending the following information to cds-info@cs.umass.edu.

Description of project
Specific goals – draft goals are fine, we can work with you to determine your options
Scope of our involvement
- 1 week engagement
  - Review the current codebase
  - Develop a scope of the end product
  - Assess a feasibility
- 1 month engagement
  - Prototype code
  - Thorough review of code
- 3 month engagement
  - Serious analysis
  - Usable prototype
Future funding plan
Future goals – seed is the beginning
Max 1 page
Include links to existing codebase or examples

Applications will be chosen based on the following criteria:

Want to learn more about your options?