Workshop Proposal: IMAG Futures Meeting

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

It is now an opportune time to assess the current state of modeling in biomedical, biological and behavioral research. In 2003, a small trans-agency working group resulted in the formation of the Inter-agency Modeling and Analysis Group (IMAG) and the first inter-agency solicitation for multiscale modeling of biomedical, biological and behavioral systems. That solicitation funded 24 projects, creating the Multiscale Modeling Consortium (MSM). The IMAG MSM Consortium is now in its fourth year and the awards made through the original MSM solicitation are expiring. Since then many other initiatives have emerged from the eight IMAG government agencies that have a focus on multiscale modeling (e.g., NIH, NSF, DOE). As the original MSM projects expire and new MSM projects are introduced to the MSM Consortium, IMAG has determined that this year, in lieu of the annual MSM grantee meeting, IMAG will hold an IMAG Futures Meeting featuring twenty invited broad thinkers in biology representing different biology disciplines(see attached Agenda) to brainstorm ideas concerning the future of biomedical, biological and behavioral modeling, including an assessment of current progress, both successes and failures. Specifically, the meeting will provide an opportunity for IMAG to assess to what extent computational modeling has succeeded or failed to make a difference in the broader research endeavor, and to discuss these issues in the context of current challenges and opportunities for biomedical, biological and behavioral modeling. The twenty invited scientists representing diverse areas of biology, and representatives from NIH, NSF, and DOE, will discuss the impact of computing on biology and biomedicine to identify failures and successes and direct future work through a report generated from the meeting.