The specific aim of this application is to support a two-day workshop entitled """"""""The Future of Bioinformatics: Identifying the Barriers and Options for Solutions"""""""" to be held February 3-4, 1998 at the Krasnow Institute at GMU, Fairfax, Virginia. The Research Resources and Infrastructure (RRI) Working Group of the Subcommittee on Biotechnology Steering Group is a governmental interagency group drawn from those agencies with active interests and/or programs in the area of research resources and infrastructure. The RRI Working Group was established in 1997 to address issues within the broad area of bioinformatics, databases, and other repositories. The charge of the RRI Working Group is to identify the key issues surrounding these research resources and develop solutions to the most salient problems. To accomplish this goal, the Working Group must have detailed information on future bioinformatics needs across the array of information technologies and has determined that a focused workshop with experts in the field is imperative. The purpose of the workshop will be to bring together 16 to 20 participants from academia, government, and industry with the RRI Working Group to discuss the key issues surrounding bioinformatics. The immediate goal of the workshop is to provide the Working Group a report summarizing the meeting and providing a list of problems, and barriers and options for solutions.
