January 2012 DMID Council-Approved Concepts
Concepts represent early planning stages for program announcements, request for applications, or solicitations for Council's input. If NIAID publishes an initiative from one of these concepts, we link to it below. To find initiatives, go to the Opportunities and Announcements portal.
NB: Council approval does not guarantee that a concept will become an initiative.
Table of Contents
Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance
For the published broad agency announcement, see the October 18, 2012, solicitation.
Bioinformatics Resource Centers for Infectious Diseases
Broad Agency Announcement
Contact: George Kennedy
Objective: To collect, archive, update, and integrate a variety of research data, including genomics and metagenomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, host/pathogen interaction data, genotype/phenotype correlation data, and other types of experimentally generated data and metadata related to multiple pathogens. Also to provide for the query, analysis, and display of such information through user-friendly interfaces and computational analyses tools to be made freely available to the scientific community.
Description: The Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs) will provide the following:
- Data management and computational infrastructure to support research data for human pathogens and related organisms and invertebrate vectors of diseases.
- Databases that archive, integrate, and make accessible a large variety and quantity of experimental data types obtained using advanced "omics" and other technologies.
- User-friendly Web and programming interfaces to allow external users to easily query, retrieve, analyze, upload, and download data.
- Analysis tools and algorithms as Open Source.
- A centralized Web portal to supply users with easier access to the information, data, and software provided by the BRCs; support data related to the host element of infectious diseases; provide a metagenomics data analysis resource; and facilitate collaboration with other public resources and the broad scientific community.
- Bioinformatics services to experimental laboratories conducting basic and applied research, such as providing support for analyzing experimental data, depositing experimental data into public data repositories, etc.
- Hands-on training and workshop opportunities to introduce the scientific community to the bioinformatics resources, analysis tools, and data provided. Community outreach activities to expand the user-base and utility of the BRCs.
Ultimately, the BRCs are responsible for investigating and understanding the bioinformatics needs of infectious disease researchers and the many pathogen research communities supported by DMID, and to flexibly and efficiently respond to them as the need arises. NIAID-funded programs and initiatives, as well as other public and private data sources, are expected to contribute data and other information to the BRCs.
Genomics Centers for Infectious Diseases
For the published request for applications, see the February 7, 2013, Guide announcement.