Forum:Funding Opportunities In Bioinformatics

Question

[Obi Griffith]

I don't think I will get much disagreement from the community if I suggest that the current capacity for analysis is being far overwhelmed by new data production. Yet, from my perspective, it still seems far easier to get support for another sequencing machine or X lanes of sequencing data than for someone to actually analyze the data. And, it seems even more challenging to get funding for software engineering, database maintenance, data/knowledge curation, and so on which might make analysis tasks more efficient and effective. So, I thought I would ask Biostar, what bioinformatic-specific funding opportunities are out there? I have listed some that I know of below and will update the list with any suggestions. More generally, what strategy is best for someone starting a primarily bioinformatics lab? Accept the realities and target typical funding sources where we emphasize the biological question and soft-pedal the informatics challenges? Cobble together many co-applications where we offer informatics support on other PI's grants? Or, try to educate and rail against the funding world until those with the purse strings clue in? :-)

Bioinformatics-specific funding opportunities (USA):

• Exploratory Innovations in Biomedical Computational Science and Technology (R21)
• Advanced Development of Informatics Technology (U24)
• NLM Express Research Grants in Biomedical Informatics (R01)
• Early-Stage Development of Informatics Technology (U01)
• Genomic Resource Grants for Community Resource Projects (U41)

Answer 1

[Istvan Albert]

Some observations:

• Accept the realities and target typical funding sources where we emphasize the biological question and soft-pedal the informatics challenges?

I do think that these should be targeted as well as long as it is a good match to one's primary expertise.

• Cobble together many co-applications where we offer informatics support on other PI's grants?

This is a good approach for getting partial salary support for students/postdoc. An added benefit is that one only needs to start putting effort into the project if the funding comes through thus there is a less up front effort in writing/submitting the grant. The downside is that you need to make sure to explicitly negotiate the terms. Separate cost center is ideal but may also be frowned upon.

[DG]

Great points. Here in Canada we have fewer national competitions for funding, particularly for Grad student/ Post-Doc fellowships, and none specifically geared towards Bioinformatics (although Genome Canada did recently have two Bioinformatics specific competitions for teams). I readily admit to not being a great grant writer, but I (and others) have found it notoriously difficult to get fellowships as a bioinformatician. Generally the reviewers for your work are not computational people at all and they have a hard time understanding what your hypothesis/objectives are for computational work, especially if it is relatively broad. I've found it incredibly frustrating.

[Obi Griffith]

I feel your pain. :-)

[Obi Griffith]

Thanks for your perspective Istvan. Your post revealed a slight bug in the interface. When I look at underlying entry, I see that you numbered your points 1 and 2. But, they are both displaying as 1.

[Istvan Albert]

it is actually a flaw in markdown it does not support starting lists at an arbitrary number. I think REST does so I must have been thinking about that when I wrote it that way.