http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-07-425.html
Title: Data Ontologies for Biomedical Research (R01)
Release/Posted Date: August 3, 2007
Opening Date: December 18, 2007 (Earliest date an application may be submitted to Grants.gov)
Letters of Intent Receipt Date(s): December 18, 2007, August 18, 2008, December 22, 2009, and August 21, 2009 for the four separate receipt dates..
Application Submission/Receipt Date(s): January 18, 2008, September 18, 2008, January 21, 2009, and September 21, 2009
Expiration/Closing Date: September 22, 2009
Excerpt: "This FOA encourages the use, improvement, or development of techniques, tools, and better practices for integrating data sets by supporting projects that integrate existing data sets. Specifically, in this FOA, applicants should identify two (or more if they are very closely related) data sets (presumably contained in databases) that are not currently integrated. They should describe the vocabulary used in each database and should develop an ontology that will be suitable to join both data sets. The applicant must justify the importance in unifying these two data sets. NIH anticipates that once important data sets in a topical area have been unified that others in that area will adopt the emerging standard."
It seems that NIH is looking for relatively small grants, but this is probably the best approach. One of the advantages of ontologies is that they permit you do integrate data easily and cheaply. It wouldn't make any sense to develop this technology if every project was a mega-million dollar effort.
This announcement is another indication that major biomedical funding agencies understand the importance of specifying and integrating data. I hope that the research community responds with high-quality applications.
-Jules Berman
Science is not a collection of facts. Science is what facts teach us; what we can learn about our universe, and ourselves, by deductive thinking. From observations of the night sky, made without the aid of telescopes, we can deduce that the universe is expanding, that the universe is not infinitely old, and why black holes exist. Without resorting to experimentation or mathematical analysis, we can deduce that gravity is a curvature in space-time, that the particles that compose light have no mass, that there is a theoretical limit to the number of different elements in the universe, and that the earth is billions of years old. Likewise, simple observations on animals tell us much about the migration of continents, the evolutionary relationships among classes of animals, why the nuclei of cells contain our genetic material, why certain animals are long-lived, why the gestation period of humans is 9 months, and why some diseases are rare and other diseases are common. In “Armchair Science”, the reader is confronted with 129 scientific mysteries, in cosmology, particle physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. Beginning with simple observations, step-by-step analyses guide the reader toward solutions that are sometimes startling, and always entertaining. “Armchair Science” is written for general readers who are curious about science, and who want to sharpen their deductive skills.
