Partnership Resources: Lacuna Fund Call for Datasets for Machine Learning for Climate
Find partners for the Lacuna Fund call for machine learning-for-climate datasets by:
- Posting an intro in the Community Platform. Join the Lacuna Fund space via this link, and see details below.
- Making a profile and discovering others via the Community Directory. Join here, and see details below.
We at Climate Change AI (CCAI) are excited to support the Lacuna Fund in their call for proposals to develop datasets for machine learning for climate, focused on datasets for equitable climate outcomes in climate & energy and climate & health. Proposals are due July 17, 2022; see the Lacuna Fund website for more details.
The Lacuna Fund Secretariat encourages proposals from partnerships of both emerging and established organizations and researchers. To facilitate this process, this page provides resources to help find partners and collaborators, as well as to give or receive mentorship on proposals.
Please contact lacuna@climatechange.ai with any questions about the partnership resources below. For questions about the Lacuna Fund RFP itself, please contact secretariat@lacunafund.org.
Community Platform
Join the Lacuna Fund space on the CCAI Community Platform via this link.
The CCAI Community Platform is a digital forum built on Circle, and serves as a venue for collaboration, coordination, and discussion. We encourage you to make use of this platform, especially the Lacuna Fund space, to seek feedback and find collaborators for the Lacuna Fund’s RFP.
You can join the Lacuna Fund space on the CCAI Community Platform via this link. Upon clicking this link, you should click “Sign up with an email” if you do not already have an account on the Community Platform. Otherwise, click “Log in”. You will automatically be added to the Lacuna Fund space, and a Lacuna Fund tag will be added to your profile.
Once you are on the Community Platform, the Lacuna Fund space can be found on the left side panel under “CCAI Partnerships”. To update your bio, click on your icon in the top right of the screen and click “Edit profile”; please be sure to include relevant keywords in order to help others discover you.
Once you join the Lacuna Fund space, you can (e.g.):
- Click “New Post” to create a post specifying details of the partnership you are looking for, including the desired skills and expertise.
- Comment on other posts to ask questions, express interest, have discussions, tag others who may be interested, etc.
- Send direct messages or create group chats with other CCAI community members (either by clicking on any member’s name, or using the message icon in the top right corner).
- Browse or search through the profiles of potential collaborators (using the “Members” tab within the Lacuna Fund space) to identify potential synergies.
- Take advantage of the Community Platform more broadly by interacting with the wider CCAI community through the other available spaces.
Note: The Lacuna Fund space on the CCAI Community Platform is set to private, i.e., only members of the space can access, read, and post in this space. It is your space to exchange ideas and find collaborators. Most other spaces on the platform are open to the public.
Community Directory
Join the CCAI Community Directory via this link.
The CCAI Community Directory is a searchable list of people with experience and/or interest in doing impactful work at the intersection of climate change and machine learning. We encourage you to browse through the directory to identify potential collaborators, as well as to make a profile to allow others to discover you.
Upon clicking on “Sign Up” on the Directory page, you will be prompted to create a profile with general information about yourself, your interests and experience, and the kinds of help you are seeking and offering. Fill out as many details as you wish, bearing in mind that more details will allow others to discover you more easily. Within the Seeking/Offering sections, be sure to indicate “Lacuna Fund Collaborations” as one of your options.
On the Community Directory, you can (e.g.):
- Browse or search through the profiles of potential collaborators, e.g., by using text search, filtering by interest/experience, or filtering by what kinds of help others are seeking/offering.
- Find others looking for Lacuna Fund collaborations specifically by selecting “Lacuna Fund Collaborations” in the Seeking and Offering filter fields.
- Start conversations to engage with potential collaborators by sending emails or messages. (You can see contact information under the “Links” column, or by clicking on the row associated with a particular individual to expand that individual’s profile.)
Mentorship Program
(Applications are now closed.)
The mentorship program aims to facilitate exchange between potential submitters to the Lacuna RFP and experts working in relevant topic areas. The goal of this program is to foster cross-disciplinary collaborations and ultimately increase the quality and potential impact of submitted work.
Expectations
Mentors are expected to guide mentees during the period of the mentorship program (June 5-July 17) as they prepare submissions for the Lacuna Fund RFP. We ask that mentors commit at least 5 hours per project over this period.
Mentees are expected to initiate contact with their assigned mentor and put in the work and effort necessary to prepare a submission to the Lacuna Fund RFP by July 17.
Examples of mentor-mentee interactions may include:
- In-depth discussion of relevant work in the area of the proposal, to ensure submissions are well-framed and contextualized in terms of prior work.
- Iterating on the core idea of a proposal to ensure that the proposed dataset is relevant, feasible, and well-scoped.
- Giving feedback on the writing or presentation of a proposal to bring it to the right level of maturity for submission.
- Providing guidance on the development of the project, including advice on data collection, use of existing datasets, and open sourcing.
We suggest that after the mentor-mentee matching is made, a first (digital) meeting should take place within the first week (June 5-11) to discuss the proposal and set expectations for the mentorship period. Subsequent interactions can take place either through meetings or via email discussions, following the expectations set during the initial meeting, culminating in a final version of a proposal submitted to the Lacuna Fund RFP by July 17.
Mentors and mentees must abide by the CCAI Code of Conduct.
Application
Applications are now closed.
Mentorship Program FAQ
Q: Are mentors allowed to be co-authors on the proposal for which they provided mentorship?
A: Mentees are welcome to add their mentors as co-authors if they so choose; however, they are not obligated to do so.
Q: What happens if the mentor/mentee does not fulfill their duties, or if major issues come up?
A: Please email us at lacuna@climatechange.ai and we will do our best to help resolve the situation. Potential breaches of the Code of Conduct will be responded to promptly as detailed therein.
Q: What happens if I apply to be a mentee but do not get paired with a mentor?
A: While we will do our best, we cannot guarantee pairings for everyone. Even if you do not get paired with a mentor, you are absolutely still encouraged to submit to the Lacuna Fund RFP.
Q: I cannot guarantee that I can commit at least 5 hours to the program over the time period. Should I still apply as a mentor?
A: No. While the 5 hour time commitment is a suggestion, we do believe that it is necessary to ensure that all mentees receive the help and guidance they need.
Q: What happens if my mentor/mentee wants to continue meeting after the workshop?
A: We welcome and encourage continued interactions after the official mentorship period. That said, neither the mentor nor the mentee should feel obligated to maintain contact.
About the Organizers
Lacuna Fund: Lacuna Fund provides data scientists, researchers, and social entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income contexts globally with the resources they need to either produce new datasets to address an underserved population or problem, augment existing datasets to be more representative, or update old datasets to be more sustainable. Guided by machine learning professionals worldwide, Lacuna Fund is designed for and by the communities it will serve. All datasets produced are locally developed and owned, and they are openly accessible to the international community while adhering to best practices regarding ethics and privacy. To learn more, please see Lacuna Fund’s website.
Climate Change AI: Climate Change AI (CCAI) is a non-profit that catalyzes impactful work at the intersection of climate change and machine learning by providing education and infrastructure, building a global community, and advancing discourse. Since it was founded in June 2019, CCAI has led the creation of a global movement in climate change and machine learning, encompassing researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, companies, and NGOs. See our website for further details.