Renewal of NIDDK Information Network Coordinating Unit: dkNET-CU

January 2022 Council

Lead Division/Office

DEM

Point(s) of Contact

Ashley Xia, M.D., Ph.D.

Executive Summary

The NIDDK information network (dkNET) was originally conceived in 2011 in response to community needs in Big Data biomedical research, with an initial focus on sharing of data and resources within the NIDDK research community. Since then, the needs and challenges have only grown. The program was renewed in 2017, with an expanded and more specifically defined scope to assist the community with information discovery, hypothesis generation, Rigor and Reproducibility (R&R), adherence to the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (FAIR) guiding principles, and education and workforce development. At this time, despite the growth of the program, several areas of expansion have been considered. These areas include: support for NIDDK specific data types, engaging more domain experts in both basic and clinical research, and building a diverse and equitable workforce. Thus, based on the progress and the continued need, renewal of dkNET is proposed to continue supporting the critical community needs, and to help the NIDDK community leverage the emerging opportunities from Big Data science.