In an effort to promote the enhancement, adoption, distribution, and evolution of neuroimaging informatics tools and resources, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today awarded a five-year, $3.8 million contract under the auspices of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research to build the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse.

The goal of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is to provide scientists with new tools, resources, and training opportunities through collaborations and pooled resources, said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. By building upon significant investments already made in the informatics area, the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse will provide a coordinated, coherent resource for the neuroimaging research community.

Many neuroimaging tools and databases are underutilized because they are neither user-friendly nor easily adoptable and very often not well documented. Under this contract, the Turner Consulting Group (TCG) of Washington, DC, will establish a web-based clearinghouse for neuroimaging tools, vocabularies, and databases to facilitate the dissemination of these resources and the discussion of needs and limitations. It will initially focus on functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can determine the different brain regions that become active during specific motor or cognitive tasks.


This clearinghouse will be an important and valuable tool for the neuroimaging research community, said National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) Director Roderic I. Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D. It will ensure that neuroimaging informatics tools and resources are well characterized, documented, and adoptable by the extended research community. NIBIB will manage this contract on behalf of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience consortium.

Using funds provided by the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, the clearinghouse contract will establish a web-based system that will provide a home for new research tools and data sets for imaging the brain and nervous system. In addition, this resource will provide ongoing opportunities for public comment regarding particular neuroimaging informatics tools and resources in order to guide development and enhance their use by the neuroimaging research community.

The NIH Neuroscience Blueprint provides a framework for enhancing cooperation among 15 NIH Institutes and Centers, with an emphasis on supporting and making broadly available tools and resources for the neuroscience research community. For more information, visit www.neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov.

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