Research Support

The 3 high-level requirements we hear continually from the research community are (1) very large future storage requirements to accommodate very large genomics- and patient-related data sets; (2) very high-bandwidth connectivity, particularly to colleagues at other universities, to share those data sets with colleagues elsewhere (some may also use that bandwidth to access off-site computational resources as well); and (3) tools for communication and collaboration.  “Very high-bandwidth” is the same as “very fast”; that is, the ability to move large quanta of data quickly.

Strategic directions

1. Meet the very high data storage requirements of researchers.
2. Meet the high bandwidth data transmission expectations of researchers.
3. Enable collaboration among researchers at KUMC; at KUMC and KU; and among members of the national and international research communities.
4. Support specialized microprocessor-based systems used by individual (or small groups of) researchers, often involving non-standard hardware and operating software and limited-distribution applications.
5. Build a digital repository with easy off-site access for retention and organization (including meta-data creation) and publication of research data and research articles as well as other digital resources.
6. Increase faculty awareness of issues related to publishing including alternative publication modalities, copyright, intellectual property protection, and the TEACH act.

Major objectives (an objective is ongoing if no target deadline is included)

• RS-1: Grow the Storage Area Network (SAN) as needed to accommodate large genomic, proteomic, and other research data sets (major purchase was made in January 2008).. (MF)
• RS-3: Extend the desktop videoconferencing infrastructure including the possible adoption of new products and technologies; complete functional review by June 2008. (MF)
• RS-5: Design, implement, and manage digital repositories using tools such as D-Space, Luna, and DocLinx for long-term retention and dissemination of digital resources including research data and findings, research publications, preprints, etc. (KC)
• RS-6: Attend to developments within the automated search domain with a view towards identifying new search technologies to search the digital repositories and other related digital resources including those with variant data formats by June 2008. (KC)
• RS-8: Promote understanding of open access initiatives, intellectual proport, and NIH submissions for scientific scholarly publication and data sharing, and encourage University financial support in order to increase faculty submissions to open access publishers. (KC)
• RS-9: enable collaborative reearch initiatives with collaboration tools including SharePoint and ANGEL Community Groups. (JW, DA)
• RS-10: Enable deployment and use of the Clinical Research Information System (VELOS) and support its implementation at the "enterprise" level by June 2009. (JLB, MF, JW, CSP)
• RS-11: Support implmentation of the BRAAN application for managing protocols associated with research involving human subjects. (JW)