Workshop on Cyberinfrastructure Resources for Genome-Enabled Research on Microbial Life and the Marine Environment to be held Sept. 9-11, 2007 in Arlington, VA

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

This is a grant to support U.S. scientists to participate in a joint US-European Commission workshop in September 2007. The goal of the workshop is to bring together microbiologists, ecologists, marine biologists, bioinformaticians, and computer scientists to explore the scope of future microbial and marine sciences cyberinfrastructure needs, and strategies for its maintenance. The workshop will be held September 9-11, 2007 at the National Science Foundation Headquarters in Arlington, VA. It will examine four issues critical to the development of a successful microbial cyberinfrastructure: What are the large-scale biological and oceanographic questions that will be enabled by the computational advances of a microbial cyberinfrastructure? How can cumulative knowledge of microbial biology be captured and integrated within the structure of a microbial cyberinfrastructure? What types of accompanying metadata will best enhance the value of genomic and metagenomic data? What lessons can be learned from pioneering efforts to construct biological cyberinfrastructures? This workshop follows a highly successful initial workshop held May 12-13, 2005 in Bremen, Germany entitled: "Genomic Approaches for Studying the Marine Environment and Resources". Like that workshop, it is envisioned that the 2007 meeting will facilitate collaboration and bring synergy and synthesis to the participants, and will result in a report to be published by the US-EC Task Force on Biotechnology Research. The workshop includes scientists of diverse backgrounds, scientifically and internationally, and will promote international collaboration in the marine and microbial sciences at a very high level.