Team Begins Work on Neuroscience Information Framework

A team of noted neuroscientists has begun the process of gathering data that will become the Neuroscience Information Framework (NIH).

As a part of the NIH's Neuroscience Blueprint announced at Neuroscience 2004 in San Diego, the NIF will be a repository of neuroscience-related material in the public domain, online items, reports of national and international research activities, research resources, and databases.

"Our goal is to make data and findings available to researchers and other interested parties in order to promote a greater understanding of brain function and disease," says Daniel Gardner of Weill Cornell Medical College, principal investigator on the project.

During the first phase of the project, the team will be responsible for compiling a global inventory of current neuroscience tools and assessing their availability to both neuroscientists and the general public. The NIF will then be built to give neuroscientists access to the array of resources available. The framework will also aid in introducing non-neuroscientists to the field and serve as an educational source for students.

"The structure of the inventory will be such that users will be able to locate, access, analyze, and integrate the resources to determine which are most relevant for their purposes," said NIMH Director Thomas Insel at a 2004 SfN Council meeting.

Weill Cornell Medical College and its Laboratory of Neuroinformatics, led by Gardner, are the primary contractors that NIH has selected to run the project, which is classified as a Neuroscience Blueprint Initiative conducted by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). Subcontracts have been awarded to University of California at San Diego, California Institute of Technology, George Mason University, and Yale University.

Gardner's team will use SfN's Neuroscience Database Gateway, the current online neuroscience resource, as the Network's model. The first phase of this project is scheduled to take about 15 months.

For more information about the Neuroscience Information Framework and the NIH Blueprint, visit www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov.