NIH Science IT Pre-Check
Executive Summary
The processes to support informatics and scientific computing (or “science IT”), like those at a busy airport, can include bottlenecks, long waiting times, ever-changing policies, and stringent security requirements.
Technology-savvy researchers at the National Institutes of Health promote scientific advancement, yet struggle to apply current technologies to their research due to required “checkpoints” that include documentation, setup, configuration, and operation of IT systems. Despite having specialized needs, these users are subject to the same rigid and undifferentiated processes used for systems that track budgets or manage human resources.
These users need a more streamlined and responsive framework to navigate required checkpoints, similar to the TSA Precheck program at the airport. Our HHS Ignite project set out to define critical needs and pain points for these users, and to identify components of a “Science IT Precheck” program that would facilitate IT agility and reuse via a platform-based approach.
A project supported by the: HHS Ignite Accelerator
Team Members
Nick Weber (Project Lead), NIH
Lewis Kim, NIH
Amy Gentzel, NIH
Jonathan Groth,NIH
Chris Campanale, NIH
Milestones
March 2016: Project selected into the HHS Ignite Accelerator
April 2016: Time in the Accelerator began
June 2016: Initial prototype developed on Amazon Web Services cloud platform
July 2016: Time in the Accelerator ended
Project Sponsor
Darrell Hurt, Ph.D., Chief, Bioinformatics and Computational Biosciences Branch, Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Additional Information
Our team interviewed and surveyed over 50 technology-savvy scientists to uncover needs and pain points, and we established a model framework whereby these users can adopt a suite of tools that work with a secure, automated, cloud-based platform that allows for reuse of system components, documentation, and security authorization. We envision this approach promoting research agility; fostering scientific advancement, collaboration, and discovery; and defining a new of working with the next generation of NIH researchers.
A successful implementation of Science IT Precheck can improve IT operations and help to save time and money while better supporting NIH research. At the same time, this approach promotes flexibility in working with different users with different needs, while also facilitating NIH compliance with government policy mandates.
