Collaborative & Service Projects

Collaborative Projects

Collaborative Project (CPs) serve to focus technology development within TR&Ds on novel and impactful challenges, while also serving as test beds to evaluate the technologies and provide feedback to the TR&Ds. This interactive relationship is fundamental to the NCBIB concept. This proposal includes 10 CPs from diverse areas of biomedicine that can benefit from novel technologies in metabolic imaging. During the course of the project, some CPs will end when their funding or technology development are completed, and new CPs will be added. Based on the P41 guidelines, “While it is expected that the vast majority or all of the CPs would have funding support in place at the time of P41 application, there is not an expectation that this funding must be in place for the entire proposed duration of the P41 funding period.”

One of the cornerstones of the NCBIB mechanism is “Working in a push-pull, iterative relationship with CPs, a TR&D project should develop and optimize new tools and methods to address specific biomedical research problems that are otherwise difficult to tackle using existing tools and methods.” In this process, CPs serve as testbeds for evaluating the NCBIB developed technologies and providing the feedback to the TR&Ds for further developments. Thus, the entire pull activity (what is returned to the NCBIB by the CP and that will be used to motivate further developments) for every technology is not knowable a priori and the pull activity (in some cases push activity also) continue to occur during the course of the interaction. Accordingly, depending upon the maturity of the collaboration, some of the CPs will have more details on push or pull than others.

The criteria for selecting collaborative projects: Many CPs derive from collaborative relationships of CAMIPM investigators or by new collaborative relationships arising from meeting and workshop presentations. Collaborative project requests can also be made on the resource website via the online Collaborate form (see Training & Dissemination section) available on the CAMIPM website. Submissions are automatically forwarded for review to the Executive Committee. New CP proposals will be presented to the Executive Committee by the PI of the relevant TR&D(s) which will review them according the following criteria:1) The project must drive innovative technical developments in at least one of the TR&Ds and serve as the test bed for evaluating the resulting technology, 2) Feasibility of achieving the proposed technology development with CAMIPM resources, 3) Feasibility of implementing the resulting technology by the CP, including availability of instrumentation, infrastructure, and funding at the CP site, and 4) Demographic diversity in the CP portfolio. New CPs will also require approval of the CAMIPM EAC, which will be obtained at annual meetings or electronically. CPs will be required to acknowledge NCBIB support on the publications resulting from collaborations regardless whether the NCBIB members are listed as authors. 4) Demographic diversity in the CP portfolio. New CPs will also require approval of the CAMIPM EAC, which will be obtained at annual meetings or electronically. CPs will be required to acknowledge NCBIB support on resulting publications regardless of NCBIB members listed as authors.

Precision of proposed metabolic measures: While “precision” in CAMIPM refers to mechanistic precision rather than measurement precision, we provide data on the precision and specificity of some the proposed technologies in Table 1 as a basis for further technological development and application of these technologies to specific disorders or interventions such as TMS and exercise.

Service Projects

Service Projects (SPs) are also a key component of the BTRC mechanism. While not serving as drivers test beds for NCBIB technology development, SPs are early adopters of validated technologies derived from the NCBIB. This CAMIPM proposal includes 10 SPs that are using metabolic imaging technologies described in our preliminary results. These include both acquisition methods and protocols as well as signal processing algorithms and software. In addition to disseminating its technologies, CAMIPM support of SPs includes access to expertise in the NCBIB for consultation in experimental design, protocol development, data analysis and data interpretation, and is some cases access to CAMIPM instrumentation.

The criteria for recruiting service projects and services to be provided by CAMIPM: The SPs are currently funded projects that utilize the matured technologies and capabilities of the proposed NCBIB to expand their research objectives. Potential service project investigators may call/email/meet directly with Executive Committee members or respective TR&D leader to discuss and initiate service projects. Formal requests will be made by applying through the online Collaborate form (see Training & Dissemination section) available on the CAMIPM website summarizing the project’s rationale, infrastructure, and plan for use of CAMIPM technology. Submissions are automatically forwarded for review to the Executive Committee. These projects should have extramural funding and meet all the criteria for collaborative projects except that they do not need to have the push-pull component. New service projects must also meet the following criteria: 1) technical feasibility, 2) clinical feasibility (if applicable), 3) clinical safety, and 4) scientific merit. Early stage or other investigators who do not have current funding and plan to acquire preliminary data for potential extramural support will be referred to Center for Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (CAMRIS), the departmental committee that oversees all MRI research, for securing MRI scanner time under a paid protocol development process. Therefore, there is no chargeback mechanism proposed.  Overall, the proposed NCBIB will provide SP investigators access to the unique and advanced metabolic imaging technologies including consultation, advise on the experimental design, acquisition, analyses tools that are not available at other centers.