US National Science Foundation

The Challenge: The Environmental Sciences Community needed a trusted, high-standard data repository, curation service center, and clearinghouse to secure national data assets and address the problem of valuable environmental data being locked away in disparate, unstable storage silos.
The Solution: Through funding provided by The National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology (NSF-DEB), EDI met the challenge. Since 2018, the EDI Repository has served as this strategic national and international asset for the NSF-DEB environmental science community, providing essential curation services and acting as a central clearinghouse.
The Impact & Outcomes:
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EDI now houses 87,000 data packages from NSF-DEB, becoming a secured national data asset.
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It facilitates nearly 10,000 package downloads per week, with significant international user activity (60% US and 40% international).
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EDI actively addresses data silos, ensuring empowering data is accessible rather than trapped.
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EDI is progressing toward becoming the global leader of environmental data collaboration, strengthening the position of US environmental data accessibility.