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How It Works
caBIG™ is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and its activities are supervised by the National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB). The initiative operates through an open development community made up of a wide spectrum of the cancer research community. Anyone can participate in caBIG™ and there is no cost to join. The caBIG™ community includes over 50 Cancer Centers, numerous other NCI-supported research endeavors, 30 federal, academic, not-for profit and industry organizations and over 900 individuals altogether.
The work of the community is organized by workspaces, virtual teams that develop technologies in specific areas of interest. The workspaces serve as self-sustaining communities of partners in which tools and ideas are continually being developed, shared, and improved.
Workspace participants interact in a variety of ways, including:
- LISTSERVS
Workspaces and project teams maintain LISTSERVS to announce upcoming events, meetings and new products and information. Visit the caBIG Announce Listserv to sign up for the general announcement list.
- Workspace Teleconferences
Each workspace holds regular teleconference calls one to two times monthly. Information about the schedule of calls and dial in instructions are available from each workspace page.
- Face-to-Face Meetings
Workspaces gather for face-to-face meetings periodically over the course of the year. These meetings provide the opportunity for members to tackle specific issues that are best accomplished together in real time; receive updates; and discuss accomplishments, upcoming tasks, and future goals. Schedules for upcoming Face-to-Face Meetings are announced on the caBIG Announce Listserv. Materials (agendas, presentations) from previous Face-To-Face Meetings are available from each workspace page.
- Town Hall Meetings
Questions from the caBIG™ community are solicited prior to each Town Hall Meeting teleconference. These meetings are designed to provide updates and to address issues or questions about caBIG™, and are announced via the caBIG Announce Listserv.
- Annual Meetings
The caBIG™ community gathers annually to celebrate successes, address caBIG™-wide and cross-workspace topics, and demonstrate emerging and available products, including software tools, databases, prototypes, white papers, and developmental models. Special sessions are also offered for those new to caBIG™. There is no charge for the meeting.
Workspaces
Currently, caBIG™ workspaces are organized into three categories:
Domain Workspaces (focused on specific disciplines)
- Clinical Trial Management Systems (CTMS)
Develops a comprehensive set of modular, interoperable and standards-based tools designed to meet the diverse clinical trials management needs of the Cancer Center community. - Integrative Cancer Research (ICR)
Produces modular and interoperable tools and interfaces that provide for integration between biomedical informatics applications and data. This will ultimately enable translational and integrative research by providing for the integration of clinical and basic research data. - In Vivo Imaging (IMAG)
Creates, optimizes and validates tools and methods to extract meaning from and share imaging data. - Tissue Banks and Pathology Tools (TBPT)
Develops a set of tools to inventory, track, mine, and visualize biospecimens and related annotations from geographically dispersed repositories.
Cross-Cutting Workspaces (focused on defining and achieving interoperability)
- Architecture (ARCH)
Develops the platform that integrates diverse data types and supports interoperable analytic tools. This group also defines syntactic interoperability, mentors developers, and is developing caGrid. caGrid is the underlying network architecture and platform that provides the basis for connectivity, tools deployment, and data sharing between caBIG™ participants. - Vocabularies and Common Data Elements (VCDE)
Evaluates and integrates systems and standards for vocabularies and common data elements and ontology content development, as well as software systems for content delivery. They also define semantic interoperability, train and provide mentors, and provide guidelines for the adoption of standards and CDE harmonization.
Strategic-Level Workspaces (focused on overarching issues integral to all workspaces)
- Data Sharing and Intellectual Capital (DSIC)
Addresses issues and develops recommendations related to data sharing, patient privacy, intellectual capital, security and other policies related to caGrid as well as other regulatory and proprietary issues. - Documentation and Training (D&T)
Defines guidelines, processes, templates and tools for developing consistent software documentation and training materials and for fostering mentoring activities throughout caBIG™. - Strategic Planning (SP)
Assists caBIG™ senior leadership with strategic planning and vision development activities.
A list of primary contacts for each of the workspaces is available on the individual workspace pages within this site and on the Contact Us page.
For a broad overview of caBIG™ and how it works, read the caBIG™ Primer: an Introduction to caBIG™.
