On April 27, 2012, the U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Cyberinfrastructure announced a request for proposals with the name "Data Infrastructure Building Blocks (DIBBs)".
The introduction in this solicitation states: NSF's Cyberinfrastructure Framework for 21st Century Science and Engineering (CIF21) investment focuses on the interconnected cyberinfrastructure components necessary to realize the research potential of theoretical, experimental, observational and simulation-based research efforts.The [DIBBs] Program Description describes the goals of the program as such: .
to support the development or expansion of new types of digital data storage, preservation, and access that: (1) enable engagement at the frontiers of science and engineering research and education; (2) work cooperatively and in coordination to overcome conventional barriers due to data type and format, discipline or subject area, and time and place to facilitate sharing of data; (3) combine expertise in cyberinfrastructure; library and archival sciences; computer, computational, and information sciences; and various domain sciences; (4) lead to long-term governance models for economic and technological sustainability over multiple decades.
planning awards aimed at further defining disciplinary and interdisciplinary communities' data storage and management requirements.[1].
.support community efforts to provide broad interoperability of datasets, enhancing interaction and information sharing to benefit all areas of NSF-funded science, engineering and education.