Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (BD&AI) have become so pervasive, and the opportunities they present so transformative, that they are viewed as essential for competitive growth. Since the number of firms adopting BD&AI technologies is growing exponentially, the demand for BD&AI practitioners is also growing at a rapid rate. However, several studies indicate that there is a BD&AI talent shortage and skills gap between labor market requirements and expertise available in the current workforce. This talent shortage and skills gap are now recognized as a crucial impediment in leveraging BD&AI for economic growth at the local, national, and global levels. This research aims to identify BD&AI workforce trends, gaps, and opportunities by using bibliometric analysis and extracting insights from job posting data. The study team first conducted bibliometric research and built word cooccurrence diagrams using BD&AI related articles published in high-impact journals to determine technological changes impacting various industry domains. The team then collected job postings data and summarized the skill sets required to be competitive in industries driven by BD&AI. Finally, the study team evaluated the curricula of BD&AI programs at various colleges and universities educating the future workforce and conducted a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to bridge the gaps between industry needs and academic training. This multi-step research framework forecasts oncoming technological changes in various industry clusters, workforce skills that are and will be needed, and provides recommendations for a workforce development roadmap so that businesses can gain a competitive advantage through the use of BD&AI.

IntroductionThe Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank (RCSB-PDB), the US data center for the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB) archive, manages and provides large-scale data of experimental 3D structures of biological macromolecules. RCSB-PDB provides wwPDB data and other unique services freely as an open data resource that is utilized by researchers (from structural biologists to computational biologists), educators, and students all over the world. RCSB-PDB operates at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and the University of California San Diego/San Diego Supercomputer Center. MethodologyThe results of an analysis examining the value and economic impact of the RCSB-PDB and its work are presented below. Sources of data for this analysis include website analytics (RCSB-PDB user numbers and levels of use) and RCSB-PDB operational expenditures. The authors of this analysis also applied several key factors and conclusions drawn from a 2016 study of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), the site of PDB Europe. Key FindingsThe analysis revealed that RCSB-PDB data and services are utilized extensively, provide a significant value to its user community and creates significant societal economic impact far beyond its user community.• RCSB-PDB Users: The RCSB-PDB is regularly and widely accessed, and it is estimated that there are more than 1 million unique users annually. However, for purposes of this study, a conservative estimate based on the average monthly unique users was utilized in calculating the economic impacts. Using this methodology, during fiscal year 2016, the RCSB-PDB website at rcsb.org supported an estimated 295,465 unique users. Users hailing from 100+ countries logged more than 7 million sessions and more than 32 million page views.• Replacement Value: While the costs of data creation and deposition are unknown, a reasonable estimate to replicate the RCSB-PDB data archive is $12 billion (assuming $100,000 avg. cost to replicate each entry).• Investment Value: RCSB-PDB's operational costs, including the costs of data creation and deposition, annotating and adding value to the data, and other expenses total $6.9 million per year.• Economic Impacts to the State Economy: Economic impact analysis reveals a total economic impact to New Jersey of $8.5 million (including multiplier effects), approximately 42 jobs created with annual wages of $4.7 million, and estimated tax revenues (to local, state, and federal governments) of $1 million annually.• Access Value: The value of time and money users spend obtaining RCSB-PDB data and services represents the economic value of their investment. The access value of RCSB-PDB data and services is estimated to be $43.7 million annually.• Use Value: Use value represents the value (cost) of the time spent accessing and working with RCSB-PDB data. The use value of RCSB-PDB data and services is estimated at $5.5 billion annually, 800 times greater than RCSB-PDB's direct operating co...