National Center for Biomedical Ontology: Call for DBPs

Proposals due: March 14, 2011

Awards made: April 22, 2011

Funding begins: August 1, 2011

 

 

The National Centers for Biomedical Computing (NCBCs) are dedicated to the development of a national infrastructure for biomedical computation. Each NCBC supports a very small number of Driving Biological Projects (DBPs) that, while pursuing significant scientific research of their own, interact in an important way with their respective center to stimulate the development of new computational resources and technologies and to provide “applications pull” for the center’s technical work. DBPs are expected to be early adopters of each center’s technology, to help stimulate new creative ideas regarding computational solutions, and to collaborate broadly with the center’s activities. The key personnel of DBPs are expected to attend center project meetings, to participate in regular teleconferences, and to contribute to all aspects of the center. More information about DBPs in general is available in the NCBC program announcement (http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-09-002.html). Information about current and past DBPs for the National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) is available on the Center’s website (http://www.bioontology.org/driving-projects).

 

 

The NCBO is an international consortium of researchers committed to improving human health by developing technology and infrastructure that accelerates biomedical discovery. Our vision is that all biomedical knowledge and data are disseminated on the Internet using principled ontologies in such a way that the knowledge and data are semantically interoperable and useful for furthering biomedical science and clinical care. Our mission is to create software and support services for the application of principled ontologies in biomedical science and clinical care, ranging from tools for application developers to software for end-users.

 

An NCBO DBP must be an independent biomedical project with ongoing, peer-reviewed support from the United States National Institutes of Health or other appropriate sponsor. The funding provided by NCBO primarily is intended to sustain collaborative activities with the Center, not to support the ongoing biomedical research. The ideal NCBO DBP will be a self-contained biomedical research activity that, in its work, will employ or contribute to biomedical ontologies, or will require the use of computer-based tools that make use of biomedical ontologies. The primary focus of the DBP should be biomedical investigation. It is anticipated that the DBP will serve as a test bed for the NCBO’s technology and will provide a showcase for how the NCBO’s technology can enable or accelerate world-class biomedical investigation.

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) anticipates supporting two new DBPs beginning August 1, 2011. These DBPs will be managed as subcontracts from Stanford University, the administrative home of the NCBO. Maximum awards will be for $140,000 annually for up to two years (direct costs). The award is contingent on the ongoing support of the NCBO by the National Institutes of Health and is renewable annually based on satisfactory performance. 

 

Information about the NCBO, its current DBPs, and its associated technologies is available from http://www.bioontology.org.

 

 

Proposals for NCBO DBPs must include a research plan, a budget for the full project period, and a budget justification. Proposals should follow the conventions of the National Institutes of Health Form 398, which is used for research-grant applications. The research description should be no more than 12 pages, and must include the following sections:

 

 

Applicants planning to submit a proposal to become an NCBO DBP are required to discuss their proposal prior to submission with:

 

Trish Whetzel, Ph.D.

Outreach Coordinator

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology

whetzel_at_stanford.edu

 

No proposal will be accepted for review unless it has been first discussed with Dr. Whetzel. No proposals will be accepted for review after March 14, 2011.

 

Criteria for Selection

 

 

 

Proposals for NCBO DBPs will be reviewed by an initial selection committee consisting of the NCBO Executive Committee, members of the NCBO Scientific Advisory Board, and the NIH Program Officer and Lead Science Officer. The recommendations of the initial selection committee will undergo a second round of review by the NCBO Science Officers, who are senior staff members at the NIH and other government research agencies.   Notification will be made by April 22, 2011, with funding for 2 DBPs slated to begin with the initiation of our new fiscal year on August 1, 2011.

 

 

·         March 14, 2011 – Final proposals due

·         April 22, 2011 – Notification of award

·         August 1, 2011 – Earliest date for commencement of funding