Chapman Professor Chris Bader Awarded $664K From Indiana University

Chris Bader, chair of the department of sociology, was awarded a $664,186 grant from Indiana University as a subaward of a $1.6 million Templeton Foundation grant to support the project, “Using the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) to Strengthen the Religion Research Community.” 

This project proposes three major initiatives that build upon and complement existing ARDA features and services. The initiatives include:

• Building on the strengths of the current Data Archive;
• A new vision and new tools for archiving and discovering data and measures;
• Expanding partnerships that promote the discovery, sharing, and securing of data in the research community.

These initiatives all leverage the ARDA’s newly rebuilt website architecture. This project will strengthen the Data Archive by adding 100 new, curated data files and by optimizing the speed with which data and metadata are displayed. Relying on the curated data, this project will also maintain, update and expand online data visualization and download tools.

This project will build two new portals — a Submission Portal and a Discovery Portal — for increasing users’ access to new data sources.

Finally, this project will open new opportunities for building partnerships that facilitate cooperative connections in the research community.