If you depend on data science to advance your research and challenge your students, we would be delighted to have you join with the faculty, researchers, and open source research software developers already engaged with BIDS. We are a community that values collaboration and interdisciplinary discovery and learning. Today, researchers in over 30 UC Berkeley academic departments and schools, along with LBNL and UCSF, are affiliated with BIDS.
As a fully integrated unit of the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS), we can also reach out to our partner units so that you may benefit from the many data-centric initiatives and programs that CDSS leads. BIDS is also actively building new cooperative partnerships and interdisciplinary research collaborations, which have the potential to serve you and your students in data science research.
You can join BIDS as a Faculty or Research Affiliate. Faculty Affiliates are tenured or tenure-track faculty from UC Berkeley and UCSF, and Research Affiliates come from LBNL and LLNL, or are non-faculty researchers at UC Berkeley and UCSF. By becoming an Affiliate, you can advance your teaching and research endeavors in data science, as well as the University’s overall aspirations in this area. Many current Affiliates , have seen their data science projects and interests dovetail perfectly with the work that BIDS is doing and the resources we offer. They are active participants in governance and strategic planning, and they contribute to the programming and operations activities of the Institute in a variety of ways:
- Developing grant proposals to the NIH, NSF and foundations, including BIDS research staff as co-PIs or senior personnel, for projects that leverage expertise, program infrastructure, and community networks at BIDS. (Three proposals that prominently featured BIDS as a differentiator were won in 2019-2020.)
- Engaging research staff members at BIDS with data science and research software expertise (e.g., Martinez, Ram, van der Walt, Vareth) to deliver parts of funded projects.
- Mentoring graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and experienced staff researchers in our diverse fellowship programs, including the Computational Social Sciences Training Program, Innovate For Health, and multiple Independent Postdoctoral Fellowships.
- Leading major well-attended, annual data science events including ImageXD and TextXD conferences, as well as other outreach and training. Faculty and Research Affiliates have set the agendas and identified keynote speakers, for example.
- Launching community forums, such as the Machine Learning and Science Forum and the Information and Uncertainty in Data Science Discussion Forum, to gather researchers across disciplines and career stages to consider the topics of interest.
- Selecting the BIDS research staff, and graduate, post-graduate and postdoc fellows that help set the tone and direction for BIDS.
To get going with BIDS, please contact bids@berkeley.edu to indicate how you are interested in participating in the BIDS community. Once submitted, statements are reviewed and appointments are offered by the BIDS Faculty Council, usually within 30 days. Appointments are for an initial term of three years, renewable indefinitely and depending on your efforts to meet the affiliation criteria. We’ll be delighted to hear from you.
Please contact bids@berkeley.edu with any questions.