Strategic Partnerships

The NCRI Cancer Research Informatics Coordination Unit has developed strategic partnerships with the National Cancer Institute Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology, in Washington, and the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge. The NCRI is establishing a strong working relationship with these organisations. The NCRI and NCI have agreed to coordinate their activities in order to avoid unnecessary duplication and share important informatics tasks ahead. The potential exists to develop a joint US/UK cancer informatics platform.

The NCI regards its major initiatives as being interdependent; each effort also consumes and generates information of significance to other initiatives, and to the broader cancer research community. To address the informatics needs of these major initiatives, the NCI has established the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (NCI CBIIT). The NCI CBIIT coordinates and deploys informatics in support of NCI research initiatives. Its goal is to maximise interoperability and integration of NCI research and its related information. Informatics support provided by the NCI CBIIT includes platforms, services, tools, and data.

The EBI is a centre for research, services and training in bioinformatics. The institute manages databases of biological data - including DNA and protein sequences, macromolecular structures and gene expression - and develops tools for accessing and analysing this information. The mission of the EBI is to ensure that the growing body of information from molecular biology and genome research is placed in the public domain and is accessible freely to all facets of the scientific community in ways that promote scientific progress.