We’re thrilled to announce exciting system upgrades to the NIDDK-CR platform! Get ready for dynamic new features and functionalities, including interactive graphs, comprehensive study information pages, advanced file exploration tools, and next-level search experience. These enhancements are designed with users in mind to make locating and accessing studies and resources faster and easier than ever. Stay tuned for the release date announcement!—this is one update you won’t want to miss!

The S-index challenge, led by the National Eye Institute (NEI), aims to incentivize and reward data sharing by promoting a new metric, the S-index, that will assess how effectively researchers share data. This metric will incorporate factors such as adherence to Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) standards, data timeliness, completeness of annotation, frequency of utilization in other studies, and related publications and patents. Phase 1 for this challenge is to generate a proof of concept proposal and will open on April 21, 2025 at 8:00 a.m. EDT. Check out Challenge.gov to learn more about the challenge, how to enter, eligibility, and cash prizes.

The AI in Precision Medicine for Diabetes and Other Chronic Diseases pre-workshop webinar series hosted by NIDDK is designed to set the stage to start the discussion in precision medicine offered by recent advances in AI and data science. The first webinar in this series titled “The bio-behavioral dimensions of diabetes heterogeneity” on Thursday, October 17, 2024, will feature presentations from Dr. Yao Qin, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, on “Data-Driven Machine Learning: Unlocking the Future of Closed-Loop Diabetes Care” and from Dr. Ashu Sabharwal, Ernest Dell Butcher Professor at Rice University, on “Bio-behavioral Pathways in Diabetes”. Join the webinar on Thursday, October 17, 2024, from 11-1 PM EST using the participant Zoom link: https://nih.zoomgov.com/j/1617468705?pwd=JlqDARcaIBItOmw9bORkRLaCX70And.1

The AI in Precision Medicine for Diabetes and Other Chronic Diseases pre-workshop webinar series hosted by NIDDK is designed to set the stage to start the discussion in precision medicine offered by recent advances in AI and data science. The second webinar in this series titled “Advances in AI and applications in biomedicine” on Thursday, October 24, 2024, will feature presentations from Dr. James Zou, Associate Professor at Stanford University, on “AI agents for biomedicine” and from Dr. Eran Halperin, Professor at University of California, Los Angeles, on “AI challenges and opportunities across data modalities in medicine”. Join the webinar on Thursday, October 24, 2024, from 1-3 PM EST using the participant Zoom link: https://nih.zoomgov.com/j/1605069617?pwd=Ibhhv0HU2ZBIzEaldMPoqXyC32TuG8.1

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) is hosting a two-day hybrid workshop on October 30-31, 2024, at the Neuroscience Center Building, 6001 Executive Blvd., Bethesda, MD. This workshop aims to bring together biomedical researchers and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) experts, to discuss the critical challenges, crosscutting gaps, and opportunities for and actionable items in leveraging AI/ML and other recent data science advances in precision medicine, with a focus on diabetes and other chronic disease areas relevant to the NIDDK mission. For more information and to register for the workshop, visit the NIDDK website: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/news/meetings-workshops/2024/artificial-intelligence-in-precision-medicine-of-diabetes-2024

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) partnered together to host the 2024 DataWorks! Prize. This challenge is a collaboration with the seven generalist repositories participating in the NIH-funded Generalist Repositories Ecosystem Initiative (GREI) and will focus on best practices in data reuse and secondary analysis that advance human health. NIDDK-CR data may be used for this challenge in combination with data from a participating GREI repository. Phase 1 for this challenge closes on 11:59 p.m. EDT on October 23, 2024. Check out Challenge.gov to learn more about the challenge, how to enter, eligibility, and prizes.

Winners of the Intermediate/Advanced-level Data Centric Challenge, Dr. Ali Loveys and Fiona Meng from FI Consulting, presented Laying the Foundation for AI-Ready Data at the ODSS Data Sharing and Reuse Seminar on May 10, 2024. The FI Consulting team successfully consolidated and unified multiple TrialNet data sets and identified data outliers, then enhanced raw data to ensure consistent variable representation and identified numeric and categorical “missingness” to prevent modeling bias, thus enhancing TrialNet data for AI-readiness. View the recording from the past webinar .

NIDDK Central Repository (NIDDK-CR) has released a revised policy that aligns with the NIH Data Management and Sharing (DMS) policy and NIDDK DMS Guidance: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-DK-24-003.html. More details and complete NIDDK-CR Resource Archival and Sharing policy are available under “Helpful Information”- “General Information”: https://repository.niddk.nih.gov/pages/general_information

In September 2023, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Central Repository announced the Data Centric Challenge aimed at enhancing NIDDK datasets for future artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Challenge participants were tasked to generate an AI-ready dataset that can be used for future data challenges and produce methods to enhance the AI-readiness of NIDDK data. Participation in the Challenge was tiered (i.e., beginner-level and intermediate/advanced-level) and utilized data from two longitudinal studies focused on type 1 diabetes (TEDDY and TrialNet). NIDDK is excited to announce ICF Inc. and FI Consulting as the Data Centric Challenge winners. Visit Challenge.gov to read more about the winning solutions: https://www.challenge.gov/?challenge=niddk-central-repository-data-centric-challenge&tab=winners

Join us for a two-day virtual workshop on September 19th and 20th, from 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), focused on promoting secondary research to accelerate medical breakthroughs and foster innovation. Renowned guest speakers, engaging panel discussions, and informative lightning talks will shed light on the history and valuable resources of NIDDK-CR as we commemorate its 20th anniversary. Plus, don’t miss the introduction of our new analytics workspace and the launch of our data-centric challenge to enhance research capabilities. Mark your calendars now and be part of this extraordinary event! Register here: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/news/meetings-workshops/2023/central-repository-20th-anniversary-workshop

DOIs are now available for every NIDDK-CR R4R study! DOIs increase resource visibility and accessibility and enable appropriate credit citation and interoperability. Researchers are encouraged to use them when making public releases using NIDDK-CR R4R resources. A study’s DOI can be found at the top of the study’s overview page along with citation guidance. Additionally, a data availability statement, with data package version and DOI, is available to requestors who are submitting publications.

As of January 25, 2023, the NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing (DMS) is in effect. All research that is funded in whole or in part by NIH is required to submit a DMS plan outlining how scientific data and accompanying metadata will be managed and shared. NIH DMS plans should address the elements described in the Supplemental Information to the NIH DMS Policy. NIH has provided a DMS plan format on the Writing a Data Management and Sharing Plan page on the NIH Scientific Data Sharing website. NIDDK is offering Institute-specific guidance for Writing a DMS Plan and provides NIDDK DMS Tools and Examples.

This revamped, streamlined process for requesting biospecimens incorporates user feedback to better facilitate access to biospecimens. Certain requests will still require an X01 Resource Access Award; however, many will need only an administrative review or will leverage existing grant applications peer review if one was submitted. The new request process is designed to share NIDDK-CR resources with more researchers faster and easier to continue fostering innovative research. Researchers can visit the Material Counts page to explore the available resources and start a request.

Vivli and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will be working together to broaden exposure and strengthen NIDDK data ecosystem. As part of Vivli’s award to serve as one of six generalist repositories that will work with the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy under its Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI), NIDDK will include NIDDK Central Repository (NIDDK-CR) resources in the Vivli global clinical research data sharing platform. NIDDK-CR’s resources inclusion within Vivli as part of GREI improves discoverability and reuse of NIDDK-CR hosted resources making data more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR), increases the scientific value by providing additional opportunities to the NIDDK scientific community, and maximizes the contributions of research participants. To learn more: contact Dr. Rebecca Rodriguez or visit the Vivli member page.

The NIDDK Central Repository (CR) plays a crucial role in making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). To enhance FAIRness of studies in the Repository, NIDDK and Booz Allen Hamilton, the current Data Repository contractor, have piloted a natural language processing (NLP) pipeline project for harmonizing study variables with NIH CDEs and for identifying potential new CDEs from dataset variables mapped to ontology concepts. Initial results show highly specific mapping of variables to CDEs as well as successful identification of relevant concepts for new CDEs. The pipeline can be refined and applied to other studies to potentially improve FAIRness of the NIDDK CR. Contact Dr. Rebecca Rodriguez with any questions.