The National Cancer Institutes (NCI) Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) is an open source, open access information network connecting the cancer research community and enabling the sharing of data and tools. Through partnership with the cancer research community, the caBIG initiative will speed the translation of research findings into clinical decision making, treatment, and improved outcomes. caBIG enables research groups to tap into the rich collection of emerging cancer research data and facilitates the integration of diverse data types while supporting individual investigations. The NCIs Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (NCI-CBIIT) conducted caBIG as a pilot during 2004-2006. In view of the pilots success, NCI has launched caBIG on an enterprise-wide basis (caBIG Enterprise). The needs of this expanding community will be met through the offerings of the caBIG Enterprise Support Network (ESN), presenting new opportunities for cancer and academic medical centers, IT companies, and others to serve as support providers, mentors, and knowledge experts. Participants in the caBIG ESN will play a vital role in seeing caBIG technology become an everyday part of cancer research and, in the future, an integral component of broader biomedical research and clinical care. As part of that effort, NCI-CBIIT is implementing the first caBIG Knowledge Centers as a new component of support to facilitate the widespread adoption and integration of caBIG standards, tools and infrastructure by application end users, such as bench scientists, biospecimen managers, pathologists, clinical trialists and information technology administrators. Two complementary activities will be launched as part of the ESN ? caBIG Service Providers and caBIG Program Offices. NCI-approved caBIG Service Providers will provide comprehensive technical and end-user support. caBIG Program Offices will be established at institutions and organizations interested in installing and deploying caBIG tools and infrastructure broadly throughout these entities. The caBIG Workspaces will continue to identify needs and requirements, set priorities and strategic direction of the Workspaces, which may result in the issuance of competitive RFPs to meet these needs. Working in close coordination with the NCI, caBIG Program Staff and the caBIG Workspaces, the ESN will provide the infrastructure needed to support the needs of the expanding caBIG community. caBIG Knowledge Centers will be established at institution(s) with demonstrated expertise in a specific area of focus or domain. Within these centers, individuals with caBIG domain-specific expertise will be identified to fill specific roles related to caBIG outreach and tool integration. Domain experts are individuals possessing professional-level knowledge, skills, and abilities in the relevant biomedical discipline with demonstrated experience in applying information technology to solving substantive problems in that biomedical discipline. Within the bounds of a specific domain, these caBIG-designated Knowledge Centers will possess the expertise required for more complex knowledge transfers, thus enabling the provision of personalized assistance beyond existing applications support and communication materials. This expertise will also be leveraged by the Knowledge Centers to identify and synthesize shared needs across the stakeholder community in the domain of interest. In addition, Knowledge Center staff will ensure that these needs and other relevant issues and feedback are communicated to the appropriate caBIG personnel (i.e., Workspace Leads, NCI-CBIIT, and caBIG program staff). The caBIG Knowledge Centers are expected to serve as the repositories and resources for the knowledge associated within their designated area of focus. By doing so, the Knowledge Center acts as the steward of the tools and documentation, providing access and support to those individuals and institutions interested in making use of or extending caBIG tools. Such stewardship takes the form of not only providing access to the current release versions of the tools over which a given Knowledge Center has oversight, but also maintaining access to the current development version of the code via the CVS/SVN systems provided by the NCI-CBIIT. Such access should also include the possibility of authorized outside groups providing changes and bug fixes to this code, with the Knowledge Center facilitating decision-making about the proposed changes through the Workspaces. The critical nature of documentation requires the same level of effort for its stewardship by the Knowledge Centers as that for the tools. The Knowledge Centers shall ensure that documentation is accurate, authoritative, up-to-date, readily available, and adheres to the guidelines of the caBIG Documentation and Training Workspace. In creating and staffing the Knowledge Centers, partnering with caBIG developers, caBIG adopters, future caBIG Service Providers, caBIG participants, or others who are expert in the domain of focus at other organizations is encouraged. It is expected that the Knowledge Center will be comprised of at least one full-time Operations Manager responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Knowledge Center. The individual must have experience working with the caBIG program and possess subject matter expertise. The Knowledge Center must be overseen by a Knowledge Center Director who is a senior level individual with professional credentials and stature as well as experience with and knowledge of the caBIG program. The Director is ultimately accountable for the operations, service, and products of the Knowledge Center. The level of effort required to accomplish the work to be performed for each of these Knowledge Centers is expected to be approximately the equivalent of four full time, senior staff, but recognize that the effort may be distributed among multiple individuals of different levels of experience. Offerors are encouraged to propose allocations of time, numbers of individuals, and allocations of duties among the Knowledge Center staff in order to describe how staff align with the Offerors vision for the Knowledge Center. While staff may serve needs within their home institution, their primary emphasis will be externally-oriented, reaching out to other institutions and organizations with interest in the specific domain expertise offered by the Knowledge Center.

Bid Protests Not Available