Notice Number: NOT-OD-18-134

Key Dates
Release Date: March 5, 2018
Response Date: April 2, 2018

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Purpose

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to invite comments and suggestions on the first National Institutes of Health (NIH) Strategic Plan for Data Science. The NIH is publishing this Notice to solicit input on topics under consideration for the strategic plan from its stakeholders, including members of the scientific community, academic institutions, the private sector, health professionals, professional societies, advocacy groups, patient communities, as well as other interested members of the public.

Background

Data science is an integral component of modern biomedical research. It is the interdisciplinary field of inquiry in which quantitative and analytical approaches, processes, and systems are developed and used to extract knowledge and insights from increasingly large and/or complex sets of data. Data science has increased in importance for biomedical research over the past decade and NIH expects that trend to continue. In order to capitalize on the opportunities presented by advances in data science, and overcome key challenges, the NIH is developing a Strategic Plan for Data Science. This plan describes NIH’s overarching goals, strategic objectives, and implementation tactics for promoting the modernization of the NIH-funded biomedical data science ecosystem. The complete draft plan is available at: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/rfi/NIH-Strategic-Plan-for-Data-Science.pdf.

Information Requested

This RFI seeks input from stakeholders throughout the scientific research community and the general public regarding the above draft NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science.

The NIH seeks comments on any of the following topics:

• The appropriateness of the goals of the plan and of the strategies and implementation tactics proposed to achieve them;
• Opportunities for NIH to partner in achieving these goals;
• Additional concepts that should be included in the plan;
• Performance measures and milestones that could be used to gauge the success of elements of the plan and inform course corrections;
• Any other topic the respondent feels is relevant for NIH to consider in developing this strategic plan.

How to Submit a Response

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/rfi/rfi.cfm?ID=73 .

Responses must be received by April 2, 2018.

Responses to this RFI are voluntary. Do not include any proprietary, classified, confidential, trade secret, or sensitive information in your response. The responses will be reviewed by NIH staff, and individual feedback will not be provided to any responder. The Government will use the information submitted in response to this RFI at its discretion. The Government reserves the right to use any submitted information on public NIH websites, in reports, in summaries of the state of the science, in any possible resultant solicitation(s), grant(s), or cooperative agreement(s), or in the development of future funding opportunity announcements.

This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation, grant, or cooperative agreement, or as an obligation on the part of the Federal Government, the NIH, or individual NIH Institutes and Centers to provide support for any ideas identified in response to it. The Government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for the Government’s use of such information. No basis for claims against the U.S. Government shall arise as a result of a response to this request for information or from the Government’s use of such information.

NIH looks forward to your input and we hope that you will share this RFI document with your colleagues.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Cindy Caughman. M.P.H.
Scientific Data Council
Telephone: 301-496-8190
Email: [email protected]