NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - The National Center for Research Resources wants its institutes and centers to link up through new networks that will share resources and infrastructure, and will support prototype efforts on such initiatives with $30 million in stimulus funding over the coming two years.
NCRR is seeking applications for two-year programs that will develop, enhance, or extend infrastructure for connecting people and resources as part of an effort to facilitate national discoveries.
These "Enabling National Networking of Scientists and Resource Discovery" grants will give up to $7.5 million in total costs per year for a maximum of $15 million over two years.
These centers could include institutions of varying sizes and levels of existing infrastructure, as well as centers in urban, suburban, and rural settings. They will focus on developing or implementing pilot or prototype tools and infrastructure that can be used in basic, clinical, and translational investigators, students, and individuals with specific expertise and interests.
These infrastructure projects could enhance access to information about available resources including data, animal models, reagents, assays, cores, literature, materials, and tools, and encourage increased collaboration and scientific exchange nationally, said NIH.
The projects will fall under two main project areas: research networking and resource discovery.
The research networking projects should provide national visibility of scientists, investigators, physicians, and other experts in biomedical research areas.
The resource discovery projects could include web portals that allow comprehensive querying of a range of resources including instruments, tools, reagents, assays, cell lines, and cores. These must be searchable from multiple perspectives such that users and scientific areas can find the information easily.