Enhancing the Utility of Common Fund Data Sets

The Common Fund has generated valuable and widely available data sets by multiple programs, containing a variety of multi-dimensional molecular and phenotypic data from several organisms including mouse and human. As various Common Fund data resources have become available, investigators frequently state that they are unaware of the data and/or of the relevance that the data may have for their research interests. In addition, some report difficulty using or exploring the data because the data portals are non-intuitive to use and/or the data are otherwise difficult to navigate.

To maximize the impact of these data, engage a broader community of end-users for wider adoption of these data sets, and obtain feedback to enhance the data portals, the Common Fund is supporting administrative supplements and awards that will further the use of Common Fund data sets. These activities will enable novel and compelling biological questions to be formulated and addressed, and/or to generate cross-cutting hypotheses for future research. Supplement and award recipients will also provide feedback on utility of the Common Fund data resources.