OF OBJECTIVES: The Virtual Collaboratory for Suicide Studies, designed by JGPerpich, LLC(JGP), will foster collaborative relationships and resource sharing for suicidology training, mentoringand career development programs through use of current virtual communication technologies. Inpartnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), JGP will develop and supportnumerous virtual community-building activities. Our first goal is to create a strong and active onlinenetwork of suicidologists. This goal will be met through an active recruitment process and numerousvirtual activities, such as virtual seminars, discussion forums, and wikis. Our second goal is to improveon an existing Collaboration MatChing Service (eMS) prototype module in the Virtual Collaboratory inorder to foster research and training collaborations. The CMS draws from a People, Operations andProjects database that aggregates data from CRISP, PubMed and non-government funding agencies.CMS search outputs will be tailored for use by the suicidology community and will improve both trackingand project outcome measurements. The third goal of this contract is to evaluate how well the VirtualCollaboratory serves as a platform for network building and dissemination of critical knowledge withgeographically-dispersed, multi-disciplinary audiences. JGP will research whether incorporating virtualcommunication technologies increases the rate and ease of dissemination of quality information andimproves lines of communication. Achieving these goals will promote the growth and on-goingdevelopment of a vibrant and dynamic suicide research community, both on site and online.
