INBRE - Bioinformatics in Research and Education at IDeA Institutions
Krishan Arora,
National Institutes of Health. USA

The goal of the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program administered by the Division of Research Infrastructure, NCRR, NIH is to foster biomedical and behavioral research and increase the research capacity at institutions located in states with historically small number of grant awards from the NIH. Currently, 23 states and Puerto Rico are eligible for this program. The Program is designed to improve the biomedical research infrastructure and increase the number of competitive biomedical investigators in these states. There are two major components of the IDeA Program: Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) which are multidisciplinary research centers with a specific research theme; and the IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) designed to build collaborative partnerships between and among institutions in IDeA-eligible states. The INBRE implements the IDeA objectives by developing a statewide biomedical research network of institutions with a multidisciplinary, thematic research focus. The INBRE enhances biomedical research capacity, and expands and strengthens the research capabilities of biomedical faculty at undergraduate institutions in the network. The INBRE also provides research opportunities by increasing the pipeline of outstanding students who may become the future competitive investigators in these states. An INBRE network includes research-intensive institution(s) or research institute along with 3-5 undergraduate baccalaureate institutions and includes minority-serving institutions and community colleges. Each statewide network requires Bioinformatics as a mandatory core that provides data management and analysis tools, and promotes informatics training and education. The IDeA program also supports a high-speed telecommunications IDeANet (also called "Lariat") for biomedical researchers in six western states participating in the IDeA Program. This western regional effort is the first step in the development of a national network and the NCRR plans to extend high-speed, broad bandwidth connectivity to biomedical research and educational institutions beyond these six states, to include all participants in the IDeA Program. In addition to INBRE, some NIH-supported Bioinformatics resources and initiatives such as NECTAR, BIRN, NCBI, CBCB of NIGMS and caBIG will also be described.