Have You Checked the Data Science Job Board?

NIDDK to Host Data Management and Sharing Webinar:

Metadata and Data Standards for NIDDK Research

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) is hosting a webinar series to provide education about data management and sharing and highlight tools and resources for investigators implementing the NIH DMS policy.

“Metadata and Data Standards for NIDDK Research Data” will explore how metadata and data standards maximize the value of scientific data, how these standards intersect with the NIH DMS policy, and what investigators can do to enhance the findability and reuse of shared scientific data.

Event date June 27, 2023

ScHARe Think-a-Thon: Access and Analyze ScHARe-Hosted Datasets

ScHARe will host a 2-hour interactive webinar where participants will learn how to access and analyze to more than 190 ScHARe-hosted datasets (including CDC’s BRFSS -- Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System) through the ScHARe platform. These datasets can help researchers investigate health disparities, health outcomes, and AI bias mitigation. 

Event held June 21.

Common Fund Announces New Request for Information

The National Institutes of Health Common Fund is announcing the release of its Strategic Planning Request for Information (RFI) to obtain new ideas on NIH-wide challenges and opportunities. The Common Fund supports bold scientific programs that catalyze discovery across all biomedical and behavioral research. These programs bring together investigators and multiple NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices to collaborate on innovate research. NIH is requesting ideas for biomedical and behavioral research challenges and opportunities that may become a new Common Fund Program or Initiative. Do you have an idea that would push fields of biomedical or behavioral research forward?

RFI closes August 11.

Genomics Data Reuse NOFO from NIDCR

The National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) an open data reuse notices of funding opportunity (NOFO):

• PAR-23-132: NIDCR Small Research Grants for Analyses of Existing Genomics Data (R03, Clinical Trial Not Allowed).

Next due date: June 16

VCF Files for Population Genomics: Scaling to Millions of Samples

NCBI and NIAID invite programmers and nonprogramming subject matter experts to apply to join an upcoming codeathon, VCF Files for Population Genomics: Scaling to Millions of Samples. VCF, or Variant Call Format Files, are a widely used file for storing information about genetic variations across multiple samples. This event aims to bring together experts in viral evolution, molecular epidemiology, and population genomics to explore methods for computing on the scale of millions of records using VCF files as inputs, with SARS-CoV-2 VCFs serving as a case study. 

Registration closes June 17

New Data Science Capacity Building NOSI!

ODSS has released a new NOSI to support efforts to build institutional capacity in areas of data science. Examples of these areas include, but are not limited to, artificial intelligence, clinical informatics, cloud computing, statistics, computational science, software design and programming, bioinformatics, visualization, machine learning, predictive analytics, supercomputing, modeling and simulation, data sharing and access, data management, data compression and standards, data security and data privacy in human subject’s research, and research ethics and integrity.

First round applications due June 19.

ONC: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing (HTI-1) Proposed Rule Open for Comment

A new proposed rule from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) which would implement certain provisions of the 21^st Century Cures Act and make several enhancements to the ONC Health IT Certification Program (Certification Program), is open for comment.

Proposed enhancements include:

• Implementing the Electronic Health Record Reporting Program as new Condition and Maintenance of Certification requirements (Insights Condition) for developers of certified health information technology (health IT) under the Certification Program.
• Modifying and expanding exceptions in the information blocking regulations to support information sharing and certainty for regulated actors.
• Revising several Certification Program certification criteria, including existing criteria for clinical decision support (CDS), patient demographics and observations, electronic case reporting, and application programming interfaces for patient and population services. 
• Raising the baseline version of the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) from Version 1 to Version 3.
• Updating standards adopted under the Certification Program to advance interoperability, support enhanced health IT functionality, and reduce burden and costs.

Comment period closes June 20.

AIM-AHEAD Calls for Funding Proposals and Fellowship Opportunities

The Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity (AIM-AHEAD) program has several open funding and fellowship opportunities:



• AIM-AHEAD Consortium Development Projects to Advance Health Equity- to support multi-disciplinary research projects that use Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) to develop novel algorithms and approaches to address health disparities and inequities. Applications are due June 20.
• Planning Awards for AIM-AHEAD Data and Infrastructure Capacity Building (DICB) at MSIs- for the first phase of the AIM-AHEAD Data and Infrastructure Capacity Building (DICB) program. Applications are due June 26.
• AIM-AHEAD Program for Artificial Intelligence Readiness (PAIR)- to leverage AIM-AHEAD resources to jumpstart AI research for health equity in minority serving institutions (MSI) with inadequate resources. Applications are due June 20.
• AIM-AHEAD Hub Specific Pilot Grant Program- to support multidisciplinary research projects that use artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) to develop novel algorithms and approaches to address health disparities and inequities in alignment with the North Stars in populations that experience health disparities. Applications are due June 20.
• AIM-AHEAD Research Fellowship- to engage a group of early-career researchers from under-represented populations to actively participate in biomedical research that involves the use of AI/ML methodologies on Electronic Health Record Data, Clinical cohort and genomic data across various populations. Applications are due June 20.
• The AIM-AHEAD Fellowship Program in Leadership- to engage a diverse group of participants from under- represented populations to actively participate in mentored didactic and experiential educational activities to acquire the leadership competencies necessary to promote and achieve the strategic imperatives of AIM-AHEAD. Applications are due June 20.

NSF Announces Funding Opportunity to Create Prototype Open Knowledge Network

This funding opportunity supports the creation of a prototype Open Knowledge Network — an interconnected network of knowledge graphs supporting a very broad range of application domains. Open access to shared information is essential for the development and evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-powered solutions needed to address the complex challenges facing the nation and the world. Knowledge graphs, which represent relationships among real-world entities, provide a powerful approach for organizing, representing, integrating, reusing, and accessing data from multiple structured and unstructured sources using ontologies and ontology alignment. 

Projects funded by this program will provide an essential public-data infrastructure to power the next information revolution similar to the Internet — transforming our ability to unlock actionable insights from data by semantically linking information about related entities.

Proposals due June 20.

New Director's Blog

The Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI): First Year Momentum Leads to Exciting Future Plans

ODSS Director Dr. Susan Gregurick recently published a blog highlighting the first year success of GREI and discusses exciting plans for the initiative's future, including growing a catalog of use cases, determining a core metadata schema, and continued community engagement.

National Institute of General Medical Sciences Announces

Webinar on the NIGMS Sandbox: A Cloud-Based Learning Platform

Cloud computing provides access to the exponentially growing volume of biomedical research data, data analytic tools, and data storage capacity. If you’re interested in learning cutting-edge biomedical research methods and/or carrying out your own research on the cloud, we welcome you to an upcoming webinar aimed to help you start or enrich your cloud-computing journey.

Webinar date June 23.

2023 DataWorks! Prize Open for Submissions

The 2023 DataWorks! Prize focuses on best practice “recipes” that advance biological and biomedical research activities, with a focus on practices enabling robust data management during the research process. Participants will submit their data sharing/reuse best practice recipes in a form that can be used by an audience of their peers, such as a teaching resource or tool for active data management. In this way, the 2023 prize will collate a rich set of best practices recipes and interactive resources to be hosted by the DataWorks! Help Desk that can be used by the research community to more easily and successfully manage, share, and reuse data. 

Submissions close July 24.

Integration and Coordination Center for the Common Fund Data Ecosystem 

This funding opportunity seeks applications to establish an Integration and Coordination Center to support the CFDE. This center will liaise with Common Fund programs within CFDE, coordinate across other CFDE centers, develop data sustainability plans, and ensure continuous improvement through an annual evaluation program.  

Applications close June 28.

Funding Opportunity: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD) Real-World Data Platform

NIH recently released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) inviting applications for the Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (ADRD) Real-World Data (RWD) Platform Initiative (RFA-AG-24-009). This Platform aims to transform the AD/ADRD research enterprise by serving as a central hub of research access that seeks to:

• improve applicability and generalizability of findings through larger datasets that include more diverse populations
• capture more complete information through linking a variety of data sources
• increase the speed at which scientific questions can be answered
• improve researchers’ ability to answer questions that cannot be feasibly or readily answered via clinical trial.

Letters of intent are due June 30.

Funding Opportunity: Instrumentation Grant Program for

Resource-Limited Institutions 

As part of NIH’s UNITE initiative to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in biomedical research, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) is pleased to announce the release of the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO): Instrumentation Grant Program for Resource-Limited Institutions (RLI-S10) (PAR-23-138). The RLI-S10 program aims to enhance research capacity and educational opportunities at resource-limited institutions by providing funds to purchase modern, scientific instrumentation. Applications may propose purchase of instruments that support basic, translational, clinical, or biomedically related behavioral science. The instruments may be used in formal courses for teaching purposes as well as for research projects.

Applications due July 3

National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Seeks Input on Data Submission

Have data to submit? NCBI would love to hear from you on this short survey to help us understand your data submission needs. NCBI would appreciate appreciate the feedback even if you don't currently submit to NCBI, and we'd appreciate forwarding to any colleagues who might be generating sequence data. 

Survey expires July 31

NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Fellowships

A goal of the NHLBI TOPMed program is to generate scientific resources that will advance precision medicine in the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders. The TOPMed program generates a collection of genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data from over 200,000 well-phenotyped individuals and integrates these data with multi-omics, behavioral, imaging, environmental, and clinical data to detect and assess molecular “profiles” associated with health and diseases. 

The TOPMed Fellowship program ensures that a diverse pool of highly trained scientists pursue further studies or careers in genomic data science research. 

Applications due July 31

NOSI: Optimization of Data Storage and Utilization for the Sequence Read Archive

Raw DNA and RNA sequence data in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) is used broadly and is growing exponentially. This NOSI seeks to attract projects that aim to develop strategies to reduce SRA storage costs and improve efficiency of the use of data in it. 

Due dates are ongoing!

NIH Publishes NOFO for Bioinformatics Resource Center (BRC) Program

NIH has published Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) RFA-AI-23-032 to solicit applications for the BRC Program that will:

- create and manage publicly accessible integrated knowledgebases to accelerate basic and applied human infectious diseases research,

- develop advanced innovative bioinformatics technologies for software and tools,

- offer critical bioinformatics expertise, outreach and instruction for investigators on use of resources and

- develop cutting-edge bioinformatics to respond to emerging needs, outbreaks, and public health emergencies.

As a whole, the BRC Program will address bioinformatics needs in the research community to accelerate the development of diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases. In addition, during an infectious disease outbreak, the BRCs will leverage their expertise, capabilities, and resources to provide bioinformatics support to the research communities.

Applications due August 25

Enter the NIH Institutional Excellence in DEIA Prize Competition

The NIH Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity is now accepting applications for the Institutional Excellence in #DEIA Prize Competition!

Does your institution promote inclusive excellence and value a culture of DEIA in research environments? Cosponsored by NIH UNITE and 24 NIH institutes and centers, the prize competition aims to recognize institutions that have implemented interventions to address gaps in DEIA. Ten prize will be awarded $100,000 each.

Submit an entry by September 26, 2023.

NOSI: Advance Data Science Approaches Through Secondary Data Analysis to Reveal Scientific Insights of COVID-19 Testing Technologies

The RADx Initiative is driving some of the nation’s most creative biomedical innovation by rapidly developing diverse COVID-19 testing technologies to national demands, with a focus on strategies for making testing broadly available, particularly to diverse, vulnerable, and underserved populations. The RADx Data Hub, is a centralized data repository for researchers to access datasets and analytic tools to the RADx program components.



The NOSI works to address questions and advance scientific inquiry related to SARS-CoV-2 through the existing data resources in the RADx DataHub, including and in conjunction with other data resources. The NOSI is designed to stimulate data science approaches by catalyzing the scientific value and revealing scientific insights through secondary analysis of existing data collected from the RADx programs.

Expiration Date: January 5, 2024