Note: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to build a Data Catalog and support research on the Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the framework adopted by the global community to encourage taking actions on the multiple challenges facing the world today to ensure environmental protection, health and well-being, and economic prosperity. This framework provides a detailed list of indicators that are interconnected and cover a holistic view on sustainable development. The goals were defined by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 and expected to be achieved by 2030. Since the release of this agenda, the research community has begun to intensify work in these areas, yet these efforts seem to be relatively limited. This is especially true about the employment of data and artificial intelligence (AI), which are not widely engaged in SDGs related topics. The AI-based research on SDGs and further developments depends heavily on the availability and accessibility of related real-world data collected by the community. However, there is no central, structured, and holistic database of datasets and metadata associated with the SDGs, which prevents large-scale collaboration on these topics. In this paper, we present the SDG Data Catalog, a global open-source database indexing SDG-related datasets, associated metadata, and research networks. We describe the construction of this catalog, which relies on state-of-the-art natural language processing models with human supervision. The catalog breaks down data silos and helps sustainability researchers navigate the data sea to initiate effective collaborations.