Recovery Act Funds Awarded to Enhance Scientist and Resource Networking — November 2009

These Web-based initiatives will bring the power of Internet-based tools, as exemplified by social networking, to biomedical research. Modern technologies for communication and collaboration have the potential to enhance interdisciplinary research, enabling individuals to connect with each other and with resources — irrespective of location — to address challenges in new ways.

Harvard Medical School

Boston

Networking Research Resources Across America

Principal Investigator
Lee Marshall Nadler, M.D.
E-mail: Lee_nadler@dfci.harvard.edu

Participating Institutions:

Description:

Nine institutions of different sizes, geographical location, and culture have come together to build and implement a Federated National Informatics Network that will allow any investigator across America to discover research resources that are presently invisible. The team, named Networking Research Resources Across America includes Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Jackson State University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Montana State University, Oregon Health and Science University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Hawaii Manoa, and University of Puerto Rico and truly spans America from coast to coast. By the end of the two year funding period, the network will deliver: nine sites capable of independently discovering invisible research resources, as well as maintaining and updating their own research resource inventory; a local inventory management system that will be the backbone of a Federated Network, yet will permit individual sites to control their own data; a simple user-friendly comprehensive data query system that will permit anyone to search all the Federated Network Sites for research resources; comprehensive reports, assessing the quality and impact of the system; and a method to add new sites to the Federated Network.

Inability to identify and access critical research resources is a major obstacle to the advancement of science and medicine. The development of a national infrastructure that would permit any investigator to discover all available research resources locally — and at other institutions — would greatly facilitate the pace of translation thus improving our ability to develop new diagnostics, treatments, and prevention strategies. The populated Federated Research Resources Network will have the potential to be expanded to other sites essentially without limits.

University of Florida

Gainesville, Fla.

VIVO: Enabling National Networking of Scientists

Principal Investigator
Michael Conlon, Ph.D.
E-mail: mconlon@ufl.edu

Participating Institutions:

Description:

The award will establish national networking of scientists by providing a new software system (VIVO) and support for scientists using VIVO. Scientists using VIVO will be able to find other scientists and their work. Conversely, scientists using VIVO will be found by other scientists doing similar or complementary work. VIVO leverages work done over the past five years by Cornell University, supporting researchers and findings of researchers by representing data about them and their activities including publications, awards, presentations and partners. The project will provide: a first release of the software to be used at the seven participating institutions focused on institutional resources; a second release incorporating all national networking features which will be used by the participating institutions to demonstrate the viability and utility of national deployment; a third release incorporating features requested by the NIH and the project's Executive Advisory Board; a community support process to ensure sustainability; a sustainable, open product development process; and a national, ongoing governance process. The national networking of scientists enabled by VIVO will provide a fundamental new capability to improve biomedical research and human health.

Establishing national networking of scientists will significantly improve all of biomedical research in the United States by providing opportunities across all disciplines to identify existing and ongoing work, identify potential new collaborations and improve and extend existing collaborations. National networking gives scientists critical new information regarding current scientific activity to improve science, knowledge and human health.