Cross-posted on my blog on nature.com and surely of interest for my friends of sci.bzaar.net.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that “the first place winner will be awarded a cash prize of US$35,000 and the second place winner a cash prize of US$15,000.”
The Elsevier Grand Challenge: Knowledge Enhancement in the Life Sciences is a contest created to improve the way scientific information is communicated and used. The contest invites members of the scientific community to describe and prototype a tool to improve the interpretation and identification of meaning in (online) journals and text databases relating to the life sciences. Specifically we are looking for new ways to:
- improve the process/methods/results of creating, reviewing and editing scientific content
- interpret, visualize or connect the knowledge more effectively, and/or
- provide tools/ideas for measuring the impact of these improvements.
While the traditional functions of peer-review, quality control, dissemination and archiving remain at the heart of scientific publishing, it is clear that new technologies are creating opportunities to facilitate interpretation of data. In initiating the Elsevier Grand Challenge, we hope to interact with the scientific community to discuss changing modes of publishing and knowledge sharing with innovative groups who are interested in changing the way science is published. The objective is to generate useful new ideas that could have a widespread impact on scientific publishing in general.
Abstracts are now invited. Submissions will close on July 15th, 2008.
(via Paolo Avesani)