American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes New NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research

NIH is designating at least $200 million of the funds it received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the “stimulus bill”) in FYs 2009 - 2010 for a new initiative called the NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research. The new program is expected to fund 200 or more grants, contingent upon the submission of a sufficient number of scientifically meritorious applications. This program will support research on 15 high priority topics within broad challenge areas that address specific scientific and health research challenges in biomedical and behavioral research that will benefit from significant 2-year jumpstart funds. Challenge Areas, defined by the NIH, focus on specific knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods that would benefit from an influx of funds to quickly advance the area in significant ways. The research in these areas should have a high impact in biomedical or behavioral science and/or public health. The NIH Challenge Grant information is now live on the NIH Web site at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/challenge_award/. Please note that the RFA includes the following important deadlines:

• Release/Posted Date: March 4, 2009
  
• Opening Date: March 27, 2009 (Earliest date an application may be submitted to Grants.gov)
  
  
• Letters of Intent Receipt Date(s): Not applicable
  
  
• NOTE: On-time submission requires that applications be successfully submitted to Grants.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. local time (of the applicant institution/organization).
  
  
• Application Due Date(s): April 27, 2009

• Peer Review Date(s): June/July 2009
  
  
• Council Review Date(s): August 2009
  
  
• Earliest Anticipated Start Date(s): September 30, 2009
  
  
• Additional Information To Be Available Date (Activation Date): Not Applicable
  
  
• Expiration Date: April 28, 2009

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View Talks from the ISMB Conference in Toronto

The ISMB 2008 conference in Toronto was touted as a scientific success, with lots of pre-conference excitement as well as positive press and accolades following the event. Now all site visitors can view the keynote talk entitled "Microbial Communities in Health and Disease," presented by Claire Fraser-Ligget of the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. This talk provides a taste of the quality of presentations given at the conference that are now available for remote viewing online.

The conference organizers and Society leadership are proud to make dozens of the talks from the conference available to current members when logged in to their membership accounts. To view the full selection of talks login here, or if you are already logged in, select the 'My ISCB' tab at the top of this page and within the ISCB User Menu select 'ISMB 2008 Multimedia'.

Access to the full listing of presentations now available online is an exclusive ISCB membership benefit. If you are not a current member we invite you to join to begin taking advantage of this as well as the many other benefits ISCB members enjoy. Please select the 'Membership' tab at the top of this page to join as a new member or renew an expired membership.

ISCB Call for Leadership Nominations

Board Nominations Deadline: April 17, 2009                           President-Elect Nominations Deadline: July 16, 2009

The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is encouraging members and affiliates to submit nominations for the Society’s Board of Directors and President-elect. Nominations are submitted at www.iscb.org/nominate (you must login to your membership record to access the nomination form - if you are a member of an affiliated regional group and do not have an ISCB membership, please encourage a leader of your regional group to submit a nomination from your region). Self nominations will not be accepted.

If you know of excellent candidates that meet the eligibility requirements below, please be sure to submit your nomination(s) right away.

• In order to be eligible for candidacy as a Director a person must be or become an ISCB member in good standing no later than May 15, 2009.
• All Director candidates must pledge to make every reasonable effort to attend the bi-monthly Board teleconference beginning with a training period in October 2009 and the annual in-person Board of Directors meeting (held at the ISMB conference) at their own expense through completion of the three year term that begins January 21, 2010.
• In order to be eligible to be a President-elect candidate a person must have served on the ISCB Board of Directors for at least one year prior to January 2010, and be an ISCB member in good standing, or renew an ISCB lapsed membership no later than July 30, 2009.
• All President-elect candidates must pledge to make every reasonable effort to attend the weekly Executive Committee teleconferences beginning with a training period in mid-October, 2009, the bi-monthly Board teleconferences beginning with a training period in December 2009, and the annual in-person Board of Directors meeting (held at the ISMB conference) at their own expense through completion of the one year President-elect term that begins January 21, 2010 and the two year President term that begins January 21, 2011.
• The elected President-elect will also serve concurrently on the Board of Directors for a term that ends January 21, 2014.

Nominations for Board of Directors will be accepted through April 17, 2009. Election of Board members will take place during the annual ISCB Board of Directors meeting in June 2009.

Nominations for President-elect will be accepted through July 16, 2009. Election of the President-elect will take place via online voting by the membership in September, 2009.

Each nomination requires the name, affiliation, and e-mail address of the nominee, along with an assurance that the nominee meets the qualifications and is willing to stand for election for the position in question. The nomination must also include a few sentences of justification that makes the strongest case possible for the nominee.

Full information regarding the 2009 nominations/elections timeline, call for nominations, and Director and Officer responsibilities can be found at www.iscb.org/iscb-leadership-a-staff-/officers-and-board-directors/nomination-election-procedures.

We are looking forward to an active participation by the ISCB membership in the nominations and election process, and I thank you in advance for your qualified nominations.

Respectfully,

Dietlind Gerloff
Chair, ISCB Nominations Committee

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The registration for our Rocky Mountain Bioinformaticss Conference is open.

The conference will be held between December 4-7th, 2008 in Aspen/Snowmass.

Go the registration here. 

ISCB Officers Elected for Next Term

The Board of Directors (BoD) of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is pleased to announce the results of the recent officer elections. Members of the Society cast their ballots online, electing the following board members, whose election includes a seat on the Society’s executive committee:

• Vice President – Michal Linial, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
  Dr. Linial has been an actively contributing member of the ISCB BoD since January of 2004 and concurrently serves as chairwoman of the steering committee of the European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB), ISCB’s conference partner for meetings held in Europe (e.g. ISMB/ECCB 2004 in Glasgow, ISMB/ECCB 2007 in Vienna, and ISMB/ECCB 2008 in Stockholm).
  
• Treasurer – Reinhard Schneider, EMBL-Heidelberg, Germany
  Dr. Schneider has been actively shaping ISCB as its Vice President since January of 2006, and he has served on the ISCB BoD since 2005. His election to the position of Treasurer replaces long-term treasurer David Rocke, who has served in this role for the past seven years.
  
• Secretary – Janet Kelso,
  Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
  Dr. Kelso was elected to the ISCB BoD in January 2005, and a year later was appointed to fill the mid-term vacated position of secretary. Dr. Kelso has contributed enormously to the advancement of ISCB.This is her second reelection to this position while concurrently serving as chairwoman of the ISCB conferences committee.

Following the bylaws, the ISCB BoD appointed two additional vice presidents. Although this is not intended to set a precedent for future elections, these appointments will enable ISCB’s Executive Committee (EC) to carry out specific activities and nurture external relationships that are vitally important to the growth and future success of the organization as a whole. The BoD arrived at their final decision with careful consideration of the wishes of the membership as expressed by their votes, countered with the objective of providing the executive committee with additional proven contributors who will help carry the momentum of this core group of leaders throughout the next term. The appointed vice presidents are:

• Vice President – Terry Gaasterland, University of California, San Diego, USA
  Dr. Gaasterland was a founding member of the ISCB BoD, served as Secretary from 1999-2000, and returned to serve as a VP in January 2007. She has and will continue to serve as the primary ISCB representative of the president at affiliated and co-sponsored conferences, such as RECOMB, InCoB and PSB. In addition, Dr. Gaasterland serves as the executive committee liaison to the San Diego based ISCB administrative staff, whose headquarter offices are at UCSD.
  
• Vice President – Scott Markel, Accelrys, USA
  Dr. Markel joined the ISCB BoD in 2006, has been serving as a co-chair of the ISCB publications committee since 2007, and was instrumental in brokering the deal to renew ISCB’s partnership with Oxford University Press to once again designate Bioinformatics as an official journal of the Society. His excellent working relationship with both of ISCB’s official journals (PLoS Computational Biology has been our journal since 2005), and his continued efforts toward expanding the breadth and depth of ISCB’s publications, makes his appointment as a vice president particularly important to the BoD and EC alike.

Each of the above officers will begin their terms on January 21, 2009.  For additional information on ISCB’s annual nominations and elections procedures please see http://iscb.org/iscb-leadership-a-staff-/officers-and-board-directors/nomination-election-procedures. The next call for nominations of directors, officers and student council leaders will open February 16, 2009, for terms beginning in January of 2010.

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In Memory of Kamalakar-Rao Mettani

In February 2008, we were saddened to learn that we lost a valued member of our web development team, Kamalakar-Rao Mettani. Kamal was 31 years old and had just finished his Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree at the University of Applied Science Heidelberg, in the department of Computer Science.

His thesis presented a thorough study of the previous ISCB website and a detailed proposal to increase member benefits by allowing for greater web-based community interactions. Kamal received the university's distinguished honor of best master of science thesis in 2007.

Kamal and his thesis were key to the redevelopment of the ISCB web site, and for several months after receiving his degree, right up until the time of his sudden death, he personally worked with the ISCB staff and leadership to implement his plan. As you look through the new layout and functionality, please know that Kamal's energy and talents are part of every piece of code and design.

We are all proud to have worked with someone who was as bright, conscientious, and professional as Kamal, and know he will be missed dearly by all who knew him.

Therefore, as ISCB launches its new web presence, we dedicate this site to Kamalakar-Rao Mettani.

Most Sincerely,
The International Society for Computational Biology

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Kamal receives his Master of Science Degree from Professor Gerd Moeckel (SRH Heidelberg) and Dr. Reinhard Schneider (EMBL).

Kamal (pictured on the far right) joins his fellow graduates on stage.

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