While data science is already contributing to scientific discovery, substantial systemic challenges need to be overcome to maximize its impact on academic research. This is one of three grants, made as part of a five-year, $37.8 million partnership with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, that aim to empower natural and social scientists by strengthening the ability of select U.S. colleges and universities to successfully conduct data-rich and computationally intensive research. Over the next three years, supported campuses will use grant funds to develop meaningful and sustained interactions between disciplinary researchers in the natural and social sciences (e.g. astrophysics, genetics, economics) and researchers in the methodological fields that deal with large scale data collection and analysis (e.g. applied mathematics, statistics, computer science). In addition, supported campuses will establish long term, sustainable career paths for data scientists, and develop an ecosystem of analytical tools and research practices that will facilitate effective research across a range of diverse scientific disciplines. Additional funded activities include holding workshops and training sessions for scientists who work with data, identifying data-science bottlenecks faced by researchers, and disseminating lessons-learned to the academic and research communities.