Utilization policy
All current or potential BISR users should familiarize themselves with the following expectations:
- Pre-funding services: Support through the BISR during the pre-funding phase is not truly free – members should recognize that bioinformatician effort through the resource is supported and paid for by Massey funds.
Grant submissions that have benefited from BISR services during the pre-funded phase must include bioinformatician effort in the grant:
- Requested effort should as accurately as possible reflect your project’s true need for bioinformatician time.
- For funded projects utilizing BISR services, users should have no expectation of receiving BISR effort in excess of the percentage of effort actually supported by their grants.
- If the budget of a funded grant is reduced, and you, as PI, choose to cut or reduce the level of bioinformatician effort, then you should expect to receive bioinformatician effort commensurate with the adjusted level, not what was originally proposed. If a BISR-affiliated bioinformatician’s effort is needed for your project, you are well advised to adjust your budget elsewhere.
- Including a “lowball” percentage of effort for bioinformaticians on grants is usually inappropriate, and will in any case often be criticized by grant-reviewers as merely “checking a box” rather than securing meaningful bioinformatic support. Again, requested effort should be commensurate with your project’s actual requirements.
- Please understand that inclusion of bioinformatician effort on grants is crucial for increasing overall BISR staffing levels, as when BISR affiliated bioinformaticians effort becomes grant funded, it frees up resource budget to secure additional personnel.
- Percentage of BISR Bioinformatician effort written into grants must be directly negotiated with the BISR Director, Dr. Jinze Liu, prior to grant submission and should reflect the considerations outlined above.
Other considerations
Users should anticipate that services provided by BISR will correspond to actual bona fide bioinformatic analysis, not merely for general assistance with article and grant preparation. While BISR bioinformaticians may contribute select text for methods and figures as appropriate, they are not responsible for drafting other parts of manuscripts and grant submissions.
Bioinformatics is a field with many sub-specializations. BISR staff have diverse experience, skills and training, and will strive to subserve your bioinformatic needs, but there may be legitimate bioinformatic requirements that BISR may be ill-suited or unable to provide. Please consult with BISR director, Dr. Jinze Liu, as early as possible during your project’s development.
Use of the resource in the pre-funding period will be prioritized according to the following rubric, bearing in mind that, for investigators that are already grant-funded, use of the resource is limited to new projects under development, not previously funded projects:
- Early stage investigators prior to their first extramural peer-reviewed award
- NCI funded investigators
- Investigators with other peer-reviewed cancer relevant support
- Other investigators
