The South Big Data Innovation Hub

What The South Big Data Innovation Hub does

The South Big Data Innovation Hub is a non-profit regional innovation hub founded in 2015 and headquartered at RENCI (Renaissance Computing Institute) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is funded by the National Science Foundation through Awards #1550305 and #1916589, serving as the NSF-designated coordination body for data science activity across 16 Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia). The Hub operates as a community-driven organization connecting academia, industry, government, and non-profits through working groups, fellowship programs, seed grants, workshops, and annual events such as the All-Hands Meeting and Partnership Forum.

The Hub does not sell or operate a unified software product. Its core offerings are programmatic: the S.E.E.D.S. Grant Program funding HBCU data science capacity, the DataUp Program for faculty development in data science, the PEPI-G Fellowship Program placing early-career professionals with government and industry partners (notably DHS-ARPA), the SMART-DART: Health Equity Cohort, and three permanent working groups (Data Sharing and Cyberinfrastructure, Education and Workforce, Social Cybersecurity). The Hub supports or collaborates on tools such as VERA (Virtual Ecological Research Assistant, an AI-powered tool developed by Georgia Tech), Data4Kids educational resources, and the HBCU Data Science Consortium, but these are partner-developed projects rather than internal products. The organization has supported $7M+ in faculty-led projects, $280K+ in student funding, and engaged 4,700+ community participants across 150+ events.

The Hub's business model is grant-funded, not commercial. All programs, workshops, fellowship placements, and events are offered free of charge to participants, funded by NSF grants and supplemented by partnerships with entities such as Microsoft, CODATA-RDA, AIM-AHEAD, and DHS-ARPA. With only 5 employees, the Hub operates as a lean coordination entity rather than a product organization, generating no license revenue or subscription stream. Its customers are effectively stakeholders (students, faculty, institutions, government agencies) rather than paying buyers, and its value is measured in community participation, project funding facilitated, and workforce development outcomes rather than top-line revenue.

Name

The South Big Data Innovation Hub

Legal name

The South Big Data Innovation Hub

Website

https://southbigdatahub.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The South Big Data Innovation Hub is an NSF-funded non-profit regional innovation hub, founded in 2015 and headquartered at RENCI in Chapel Hill, NC, coordinating data science workforce development, research collaboration, and fellowship programs across 16 Southern states for students, faculty, institutions, industry, and government.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Research Coordination Services

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Science, Technology & Innovation Administration (National R&D Policy) (BPAIAAAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI), Data Science & Analytics (Data Literacy, SQL, Visualization) (EDAMACAF)

Keywords

• Data science research
• Workforce development
• Academic research collaboration
• Data sharing infrastructure
• Regional innovation hub

Headquarters

HQ city

Chapel Hill

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. NSF Funding: Primary funding from National Science Foundation through awards #1550305 and #1916589. This federal funding supports hub operations, programs, seed grants, fellowships, and event coordination.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The South Big Data Innovation Hub is a National Science Foundation-funded non-profit regional coordination body that connects data science professionals, researchers, students, industry, and government across 16 Southern states. It delivers free programmatic services including seed grants (S.E.E.D.S.), faculty development workshops (DataUp), industry-government fellowships (PEPI-G), thematic working groups, and the annual Partnership Forum to facilitate data science research, education, and workforce development.

Product overview

The South Big Data Innovation Hub is a National Science Foundation-funded regional coordination body (not a product company). It does not sell or operate a unified software product. Its "offerings" consist of grant programs, fellowship programs, workshop series, working groups, and community-building initiatives — including the S.E.E.D.S. Grant Program, the PEPI-G Fellowship, the DataUp Faculty Development Program, the SMART-DART Health Equity Cohort, and various thematic working groups (Data Sharing and Cyberinfrastructure, Education and Workforce, Social Cybersecurity). These are programmatic services, not packaged software products. The Hub also supports or collaborates on tools such as VERA (Virtual Ecological Research Assistant), Data4Kids educational resources, and the HBCU Data Science Consortium, but these are partner-developed projects, not South BD Hub products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SMART-DART: Health Equity Cohort: Health equity data science training program
• S.E.E.D.S. Grant Program
• DataUp Program
• PEPI-G Program
• DEDICATE Training Workshop
• VERA
• COVID Information Commons

Products and services

• S.E.E.D.S. Grant Program (Southern Engagement and Enrichment in Data Science)
• DataUp Program: Faculty Development in Data Science
• PEPI-G Fellowship Program (Program to Empower Partnerships with Industry and Government)
• SMART-DART: Health Equity Cohort
• DEDICATE Training Workshop 2024

Quantifiable outcome

• Over $7 million in faculty-led projects supported
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• HBCU Consortium PartnerscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020S.E.E.D.S. Grant funded consortium including Florida A&M University, Norfolk State University, Bowie State University, Alabama A&M University, Johnson C. Smith University, and Morehouse College working together to build HBCU data science capacity.
• University of BaltimoresupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Partner in the Open Data Portal Technology project for Smart Cities and Data Science for Social Good, building on the Baltimore Data Science Corps NSF HDR project.
• Towson UniversitysupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Partner in the Open Data Portal Technology project for Smart Cities and Data Science for Social Good.
• Department of Homeland Security - Advanced Research Projects Agency (DHS-ARPA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Primary government partner for the PEPI-G (Program to Empower Partnerships with Industry and Government) fellowship program. DHS-ARPA provides fellowship placements and research challenges in areas including Human Trafficking, Real-time Analytics for Multi-party Metro-scale Networks (RAMMNets), and other data analytics priorities.
• CODATA-RDAcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for the SMART-DART: Health, Climate, and Social Equity Researcher Data Science Training Program. CODATA-RDA provides data science training expertise alongside Microsoft and the AIM-AHEAD Southeast Hub at Morehouse School of Medicine.
• MicrosoftcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCorporate partner supporting the SMART-DART program and providing technology resources for data science training initiatives. Microsoft also provides Azure training workshops and cloud computing resources for South Hub members.
• AIM-AHEAD Southeast Hub at Morehouse School of MedicinecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in the SMART-DART program focused on health equity and data science training, leveraging Morehouse School of Medicine's expertise in addressing health disparities.
• Data and Software CarpentrycoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnership for delivering DataUp workshop curriculum. Data and Software Carpentry provide open-source, community-developed lessons and instructor training for data science workshops.
• National Data Service (NDS)supportingTechnology or IntegrationCollaboration on data sharing and cyberinfrastructure working group activities, mapping resources and facilitating data sharing across partners.
• XSEDEsupportingTechnology or IntegrationAdvanced Cyberinfrastructure collaboration through data sharing working group, providing access to national computing resources.
• iRODS ConsortiumsupportingTechnology or IntegrationCollaboration on data management and federated system integration through the Data Sharing and Cyberinfrastructure Working Group.
• DataNet FederationsupportingTechnology or IntegrationPartnership for mapping data resources and facilitating interoperability across the national data infrastructure.
• Georgia Tech Research InstitutesupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost institution for the South Hub, providing administrative infrastructure through Georgia Tech's RENCI affiliation.
• RENCI (Renaissance Computing Institute)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost organization for the South Big Data Hub headquarters in Chapel Hill, NC. RENCI provides physical office space and administrative support.
• Urban InstitutesupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in the Data4Kids project providing data science educational content for K-12 students through guides, videos, and teaching resources.
• Northeast, West, and Midwest Big Data HubscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with other NSF-funded Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs on national initiatives including the Harnessing the Data Revolution program, All-Hub Working Groups, and National Transportation Data Challenge.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights10 records

Direct peers

• West Big Data Innovation Hub: The fourth NSF Big Data Regional Innovation Hub serving the Western US. Operates under the same NSF framework, with similar programs in data science education, workforce, and cross-sector convening.
• Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub: One of the four NSF-funded Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs. Directly comparable in mission (data science coordination, education, workforce), funding model (NSF grants), and programmatic structure (fellowships, working groups, seed grants), differing only by geography.
• Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub: Sibling NSF-funded Big Data Regional Innovation Hub serving the Midwest. Same founding program, same NSF awards framework, same convening model — the most direct structural peer to the South Hub.

Others

• Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI): Host institution of the South Big Data Hub at UNC-Chapel Hill. RENCI is a broader cyberinfrastructure and data science institute with overlapping data-sharing and research computing activities; functions as an enabler/incubator rather than direct competitor.
• ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem): NSF-funded national cyberinfrastructure program that partners with the South Hub through the data sharing working group. Comparable as NSF-funded research infrastructure provider but focused on computing resources rather than community coordination.
• CODATA (Committee on Data for Science and Technology): International data science collaboration organization partnered with the South Hub via SMART-DART. Comparable as a data science training and standards body, though operating at global rather than regional scope.

Broad incumbents

• Internet2: Non-profit computer networking consortium serving US research and education communities. Comparable in NSF/government funding model, academic-community mission, and data infrastructure coordination role, though at significantly larger scale.
• Computing Research Association (CRA): Non-profit association representing computing research academia and industry. Comparable in academic/industry convening role and NSF relationship, but with broader computing research advocacy scope rather than data-science-specific focus.

Emerging players

• AIM-AHEAD (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity): NIH-funded consortium with overlapping focus on data/AI capacity building at minority-serving institutions and health equity. Partners with the South Hub via the Morehouse School of Medicine Southeast Hub but competes for similar federal equity-focused data science dollars.
• Data Science for Social Good (DSSG): University of Chicago-based fellowship program training data scientists to work on social impact projects. Overlaps with South Hub's DataUp and PEPI-G programs in data science workforce development and social-good applications, though more focused on a single institution.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SouthBigDataHub
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@southbigdatahub
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-south-big-data-innovation-hub

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about The South Big Data Innovation Hub