NIH To Support Big Data Centers

NIH will award up to $24 million annually for four years to create six to eight centers of excellence at various institutions focused on improving the way biomedical researchers use increasingly large and complex data sets. The centers will develop and disseminate innovative tools and software for sharing, integrating, analyzing, and managing biomedical data. They will also train biomedical students and researchers about data science methods. The funding opportunity is the first of what NIH says will be several opportunities under its Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative, which launched in December. “The goal is to help researchers translate data into knowledge that will advance discoveries and improve health, while reducing costs and redundancy,” NIH Director Francis S. Collins says. Applications are due Nov. 20.