Company Will Continue Support for Global Neuroinformatics Community Clearinghouse

Washington, DC, December 19, 2011: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded TCG a four-year contract to continue its support of the award winning Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse (NITRC), a user-friendly collaboration environment for the neuroinformatics community. This support will allow NIH to enhance and expand NITRC’s scientific scope and add new types of resources. 

NITRC currently gives researchers around the world access to software tools and data to advance neuroinformatics research. Most of the resources are free, and many have communities of interest associated with them, allowing researchers to share advice and ideas for use of the data and tools. The new contract will allow TCG to continue and expand NITRC. Funded by the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institute of Drug Addiction, National Institute of Mental Health, and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NITRC will move towards a self-sustaining business model; broaden the range of scientific domains from MR to PET, SPECT, CT, MEG/EEG, optical imaging and later, digital atlasing, genetic imaging, clinical neuroinformatics, computational neuroscience, electrophysiology, computational neuroscience, and neuroimaging genomics and genetics; and provide enhanced services such as virtual computing and data storage. 

“NITRC is the first place I look if I want to know what neuroimaging analysis packages are available,” wrote one researcher. “It truly serves as a clearinghouse, a centralized spot to look for what’s available to the research community. It is an excellent site for disseminating software and tools; as soon as anyone says they have neuroimaging-related software to share I always ask, Is it on NITRC?” That quote was part of a testimonial from NITRC user Gwen Jacobs, Professor of Neuroscience, Director of Research Computing, Montana State University.

Under the original contract, awarded to TCG in 2006, TCG established a web-based clearinghouse for neuroimaging analysis tools, vocabularies, datasets, and databases to facilitate the dissemination of these resources and the discussion of needs and limitations. The site provides opportunities for community comment on neuroimaging informatics knowledge resources to guide development and enhance their use by the research community. 

“Publication of research results has been part of research for generations,” said William Heetderks, Ph. D., associate director at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. “Increasingly it is becoming important to also ‘publish’ imaging data and advanced software so that others can use it, test it in other settings, or verify it.”

NITRC has become a key resource for the advancement of neuroimaging research and offers a framework for expansion into other scientific areas: tools and resources created under Federal grants for scientific research in any specialty can be shared with scientific communities using the NITRC approach. NITRC won the 2009 Best Overall Excellence.Gov award from ACT/IAC as the best example of IT-enabled collaboration in government.

“Winning a recompete of an existing contract is often not as easy as it may seem,” said TCG president Dan Turner. “We are delighted that NIH has recognized the value of our work with NITRC and has awarded us with the opportunity to continue our partnership with them to support this very important project.” 

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under GSA Contract No. GS-00F-0034P, Order Number HHSN268200100090U.

About TCG
TCG (www.tcg.com) is an award-winning small business that specializes in tailored information technology solutions and advisory services with a particular focus on grants management, collaboration platforms, and budget formulation and execution.  TCG transforms information technology infrastructures and inconsistent processes to integrated environments built on reusable functionality, consistent business processes, and interoperable infrastructures. The multiple awards that TCG and its clients have received demonstrate the benefits of using best practices such as CMMI, ITIL, and PMBOK to meet complex technology and management needs.

TCG’s company goal is to save the US taxpayer $1 billion by 2016. So far the company has saved the government in excess of $265 million by automating once-costly processes, using time-saving and money-saving processes in developing code, helping the government restructure its business processes, and paying careful attention to the company’s own expenses on contracts.

Contact:
David G. Cassidy 
Vice President
TCG   
Tel: 202–742-8471
david.cassidy@tcg.com
https://www.tcg.com