NITRD Updates the Federal Big Data R&D Strategic Plan

Last week, the Big Data Interagency Working Group (BD IWG) of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program updated the 2016 Federal Big data Research and Development Strategic Plan. The updated plan is a response to changes in the federal data landscape, largely driven by the demand for AI, since the release of the original plan. The NITRD program advises public sector technology leaders on federally funded advanced information technology research projects.

According to the released document, the plan aims to advance data value and reusability capabilities in response to increased federal policies on data sharing and management. Challenges in public sector data include system interoperability, data reliability, insights from data, analysis tool effectiveness, and ethical AI development and use. The updated plan’s vision and six strategies seek to guide future big data research and development opportunities at agencies to tackle these challenges and strengthen the federal data ecosystem.

Vision

An adaptive data ecosystem built on large, diverse datasets that can effectively and efficiently support the extraction and analysis of information. This ecosystem spans the entire data lifecycle, enabling new capabilities for federal agencies and the nation.

Strategies

Success of the vision and strategies will support several use cases the working group identified and where future investment in big data R&D is expected:

• Data Integration Patterns: Combining and analyzing data from multiple sources, such as AI federated learning.
• Internet of Things Patterns: Interconnecting devices embedded in instruments, sensors, or other systems.
• Digital Twins: Computational models are integrated with a physical counterpart to create a system that updated by bidirectional data flows as conditions change.
• AI Agents: Software deployed to interact with and take actions on perceived environment.

For more information on the big data R&D landscape, refer to Deltek’s recent report, Federal Big Data Market, 2024-2028.