North Dakota BRIN PowerPoint presentation

State map of North Dakota BRIN participants

Purpose and Partners
North Dakota BRIN's purpose is to build biomedical research capacity within the state. Networking and human resource development are the watchwords for this collaborative effort between the two North Dakota research universities, four baccalaureate institutions in the North Dakota University System and five tribal community colleges.

Objectives
It is anticipated that by the end of the granting period, North Dakota BRIN will have established sustained and meaningful collaborative interactions between participating institutions in the realm of biomedical research capacity building. Long-term outcomes include an increase in biomedical research competitiveness and an increase in the number of college graduates entering into biomedical research careers.

Core Areas
Four core areas will accomplish the BRIN goals.

• A Bioinformatics Core will establish a statewide consortium of libraries to coordinate the acquisition of and access to electronic biomedical literature, databases and bioinformatics software. It will also establish a computational chemistry and biology network to serve biomedical research in the state.
  
  
• A Start-up Core will enhance recruitment packages needed to attract new talented young or senior biomedical scientists to the two research universities.
  
  
• A Tribal College/Baccalaureate Science Core will focus on increasing the pipeline of science graduates seeking careers in biomedical research. Tribal colleges will strengthen science instruction through curriculum development and utilization of videoconferencing for distance learning. Baccalaureate institutions will encourage student-oriented research projects, assist in science faculty recruitment and expansion, and participate in a scientist exchange program with the research universities. A graduate teaching internship program will provide intensive teaching experiences for advanced graduate students in the biomedical sciences while generating release time for selected tribal college and baccalaureate college faculty to do other BRIN-related activities.
  
  
• An Administrative Core will provide overall project management and oversee program evaluation. It will also provide outreach and educational services through the sponsoring of grant-writing and bioinformatics workshops, enhancement of state-wide scientific conferences, and publication of newsletters and a website highlighting biomedical science in the state.