U24 Resource Discovery (eagle-i)

Jackson State University (JSU)/RTRN Data Technology Coordinating Center (DTCC) is among the nine research institutions forming the national U24 Resource Discovery team awarded a grant 1U24RR029825-01, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The U24 project is a major undertaking to establish an informatics-based federated network to link researchers to resources available across the scientific community.

The nine-member team includes Jackson State’s Research Centers in Minority Institutions Translational Research Network (RTRN) Data Technology Coordinating Center in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Dartmouth University, Morehouse School of Medicine, Montana State University, Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Hawaii Manoa and the University of Puerto Rico. The team called, eagle-i, to build and populate an inventory and data inquiry system that will allow scientists to identify research tools and resources, quickly and conveniently, that drive their research efforts.

The team will create a national resource discovery network that will enable biomedical scientists from anywhere in the United States to use a web-based portal to search resource inventories at nine participating sites and request access to resources that will advance their scientific endeavors. As the project progresses, additional sites will be able to add to the inventory of resources.

The racially and ethnically diverse institutions span the country from rural to urban areas to ensure broad applicability and national impact. More than four dozen jobs will be created across the consortium to support the process of collecting and curating resource information, as well as developing the informatics infrastructure to store, connect, and search the data.

Impact on Research

  • Expedite our researchers’ ability to identify and retrieve information on available resources.

  • Provide our researchers with access to a comprehensive database of tools/resources available at the nine institutions, initially; and later, to a broader community of resources.

U24 Resource Discovery (eagle-i) Project Status

  • Proactively in early planning phase

    • Planning meeting (eagle-i) held in Boston (October 2009)

      • Initiated evaluation plan and selected Cores for the first cycle of data collection and entry (October 2009)

      • Preliminary timelines and milestones established

  • NIH and participating institutions (JSU/RTRN DTCC) released an announcement of award to the media (November 2009)

  • Key position (Resource Navigator) hired and trained (November 2009)

  • Planning meetings (eagle-i, VIVO, and NIH) held in Washington, D.C. (December 2009)

    • Milestones and timelines revisited

    • Interoperatiability discussed with VIVO (U24 Research Networking National Team)