Our company was recently awarded a new contract from NIH to build and operate the Neuroimaging Tools and Resources Clearinghouse, which we’re calling NITRC (pronounced “ni-trick”).  We are incredibly excited by this project and have already begun work. From our press release:

Under the five-year, $3.8 million contract, TCG will build and operate a Web-based clearinghouse to facilitate the dissemination and use of existing neuroimaging informatics tools and resources that will:

Provide neuroimaging informatics tools and resources and information about them to the neuroimaging research community at large; and,

Provide ongoing opportunities for public comment regarding particular neuroimaging informatics tools and resources in order to guide their development and enhance their use by the neuroimaging research community at large.

<Omitted a quote from some useless guy who writes on blogs…>

The work will be performed by TCG’s Washington, DC, office in collaboration with the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) of the University of California, San Diego, David N. Kennedy Consulting of Cambridge, MA, and Neuromorphometrics of Somerville, MA.

And here’s what NIH has said about the project:

“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.

If you have an interest in neuroimaging tools and resources and would like to learn how to benefit and participate in NITRC, please contact me!  We’d love to hear from you so we can build the absolute best solution for the neuroimaging community.