Dans Data Award

With the Data Award Dans wants to highlight the importance of good, sustainable and accessible data in scientific research, and on the important work of the staff - often operating outside the spotlight- responsible for the sustainability and accessibility. Using previously collected data pioneering research is being done that often leads to new insights.

On the left: Part of the audience during the announcement of the winner.
On the right: Robbert Dijkgraaf hands over the award.
Photo's Johannes Abeling

Of the eighteen entries for the DANS Data Award five were from a historical angle, four from the social sciences and four from archaeology. There were also three linguistic entries, one political science and one demographic entry. The latter two are both part of the final nominees. In addition, a historical and a sociological data project have been nominated.

In the deliberation of the eighteen nominees, the jury weighed all the criteria for the Data Award. The innovative opportunities and the degree to which researchers can benefit from the dataset are two important criteria. However the quality of the documentation and the innovative nature of the method of archiving and availability count. The four nominees scored the highest. The other nominees were the 'Dutch Parliamentary Election Study' of prof. dr. C.W.A.M. Aarts (University of Twente), the LISS-panel of prof.dr. J.W.M. Das (University van Tilburg) en the 'Netherlands Kinship Panel Study' of prof.dr. P.A. Dykstra.

The jury of the DANS Data Award consisted of chairman Peter Hooimeijer, Professor of Human Geography and Demography at Utrecht University, Jan Karel Koppen, Director Policy Development and Support at NWO, and Wiljan van den Akker, dean of the Utrecht Faculty of Humanities.
The DANS Data Awards consists of a sculpture, a sum of money to organize a symposium and a dinner for the research group.

The sculpture was designed by Tjavdar Iliev. The funnel-shaped bottom of the sculpture symbolizes the collection of data. The big D in the middle represents the processing of data. The D stands for Digital, Durable, Data, and DANS. The upper curved portion of the image symbolizes dissemination, distribution, and use of the data.

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