Advances in technologies and computation are changing the way research is conducted in all aspects of science and these advances have led to the generation of vast, diverse and complex research datasets. The vision of Cyberinfrastructure (CI) is to bridge the gap between the research data infrastructure and the scientific community through federated database systems, collaboratories, and a powerful portal with high performance computing capability for tracking, analyzing, visualizing and interpreting the experimental data and results. Team science, through the integration of multiple disciplines, allows efficient use of CI to address complex biological problems such as personalized medicine, effective drug design, and generalized vaccines against emerging and fast changing pathogens. Preparation of the current biological researchers and the future workforce for developing and using CI in biological research will provide a new research environment that is expected to revolutionize the way discoveries are made. The CI Group at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBICIG, www.vbi.vt.edu/) of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (PI: Dr. Oswald Crasta), will undertake the project, CI-Training Education, Advancement and Mentoring (CI-TEAM) Implementation for Biological Researchers, Educators, and Developers (CIBRED) with a vision of developing a sustainable and scalable CI-TEAM program. VBICIG has established strategic partnerships with a diverse selection of education and research-based institutions in an effort to broaden the population of researchers, educators, and the future workforce via participation in CIBRED. CIBRED will use a project-centric, transdisciplinary approach that will engage and prepare the participants for research environments where CI systems, tools, and services are utilized effectively to fuel the knowledgebase economy. CIBRED will build upon the CI-TEAM Demonstration project (http://ci.vbi.vt.edu/CITEAM/), which was developed in collaboration with Galileo Magnet High School (http://web.dps.k12.va.us/galileo/) and Bluefield State College (www.bluefieldstate.edu/). The research data and results available from the current collaborations will be leveraged towards the development, modification, implementation and dissemination of a new, multidisciplinary course in bioinformatics with a project-centric teaching paradigm, which will allow the researchers to focus on the problem and generate solution that transcends the boundaries of different disciplines. This will be accomplished through propitious collaborations with institutions such as National University Community Research Institute (NUCRI - http://nucri.nu.edu/), Hampton University (www.hamptonu.edu/), Howard University (www.howard.edu), Northern Virginia Community College (www.nvcc.edu/), and the United Negro College Fund Special Programs (www.uncfsp.org/). The experiences gained will be applied and transferred through two CIBRED annual workshops, which will also foster interactions between educators and researchers. Formative and summative evaluations will be an intrinsic part of CIBRED, conducted by a professional and external evaluator, Klagholz and Associates, LLC. The broad impact of the project will be progressing towards the development of a workforce required in biology, where a knowledgebase will be created through empowering the users with CI components.
