Using Visualization to Derive Insights from Research Funding Portfolios

Characterizing the existing funding portfolio of a federal agency is difficult due to the number, complexity, and diversity of funded projects and associated metadata. Determining the impact of a funded project can be even more challenging, especially in terms of qualifying the return on investment of the research activity. Deep Insights Anywhere, Anytime (DIA2) is an interactive data-mining and Web-based visualization platform that makes it easy to access and understand funding portfolios. The authors performed an assessment of DIA2´s usability and asked users at the US National Science Foundation how DIA2 can provide meaningful representations that contribute to determining the impact of a research portfolio. Their results show that DIA2 has good usability, and the study participants identified several indicators of impact as a result of the visualizations that can be realized through DIA2.