Finalists selected for prize to turn data into science products

Projects that would make air quality, clinical trial, and emerging disease data more readily available are among the finalists for the Open Science Prize. The competition is designed to take the vast trove of government and other open data and turn it into products that can be used by scientists and the public. The six finalists use data generated in air-quality monitoring, clinical trials, pathogen surveillance, brain imaging, fruit fly brain research, and genetics investigations. They were chosen from among 96 international teams that submitted ideas. Each finalist team will receive $80,000 to turn its idea into a prototype by this December. The winner will be announced in February or March 2017. “We’re supporting these six international teams of innovators so that they can demonstrate the exciting potential of open science both to advance discovery and, through the application of research, to improve health across the world,” says Clare Matterson, director of strategy at the Wellcome Trust. The British nonprofit is jointly funding the prize with NIH and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.