Renaissance Computing Institute

Monkey Health Explorer is a participatory science project that is part of a larger collaborative project studying monkey health, social behavior, and aging. The larger multidisciplinary team includes geneticists, behavioral scientists, neuroscientists and others who study rhesus macaque monkeys that live on Cayo Santiago island in Puerto Rico. The behavior of these rhesus macaque monkeys has been studied for decades and genetics and health assessments are now expanding. Blood smear slides are used to assess monkey health and scanned images are uploaded to the people-powered science platform, Zooniverse.org, to get help classifying white blood cells. Public participants who were trained in medical or veterinary fields greatly enhance the knowledge gained, by identifying monkeys with potential health conditions not originally investigated. This project engages K-12 classrooms across North Carolina and Puerto Rico to expand participant reach, while providing real-world research examples and early career training to students interested in health careers.

X-CITE develops an innovative training program for the community of scientists using the CHESS synchrotron X-ray facility, who conduct research in materials science, physics, chemistry, biology, environmental science, and other domains. The training materials and associated training activities help reduce barriers to the use of CHESS instruments, data, and tools and enable scientists to effectively utilize the national computing resources and services, such as those offered by the NSF. The project increases computing skills, awareness, and literacy for researchers with limited computing expertise, thereby accelerating the scientific innovations in synchrotron X-ray science.

Clinical, biomedical, and translational science has reached an inflection point in the breadth and diversity of available data and the potential impact of such data to improve human health and well-being. However, the data are often siloed, disorganized, and not broadly accessible due to discipline-specific differences in terminology and representation. To address these challenges, NCATS ahs formed the Biomedical Data Translator Consortium, a diverse community of nearly 200 basic and clinical scientists, informaticians, ontologists, software developers, and practicing clinicians distributed over 11 teams and 28 institutions. The consortium has developed and tested a pilot knowledge graph-based “Translator” system capable of integrating existing biomedical data sets and “translating” those data into insights intended to augment human reasoning and accelerate translational science. Having demonstrated feasibility of the Translator system, the Translator program has since moved into development, and the Translator Consortium has made significant progress in the research, design, and implementation of an operational system.

Accelerating Collaborative Team Science (ACTS) is a Team Science educational program based at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

ACTS functions as a connector, bridging the gap between researchers, coordinating centers, and other parties involved in practicing and promoting collaborative team science theory and practical applications across the scientific research landscape.

With twenty years of experience coordinating team science efforts, RENCI provides a unique vantage point for those seeking to understand the role of the coordinating center and the challenges specific to large, geographically dispersed scientific teams.

ACTS is not affiliated with the grantmaking ACTeR Pilot Grant, a program of NC TraCS.