Nanoinformatics 2010: Community-wide collaboration for the collection, curation, analysis, and dissemination of nanotechnology data

Objective: To describe the emerging disciplinary community of Nanoinformatics, of which the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a part, and Nanoinformatics 2010, a collaborative roadmapping workshop organized by this community to coordinate the existing but diverse efforts to collect, curate, analyze, and disseminate nanotechnology data. Participants: InterNano1 and the National Nanomanufacturing Network2—funded by the National Science Foundation Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing3 and administered by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries4—were the primary organizing entities for Nanoinformatics 2010. Description: Nanoinformatics is the science and practice of determining which information is relevant to the nanoscale science and engineering community, and then developing and implementing effective mechanisms for collecting, validating, storing, sharing, analyzing, modeling, and applying that information. Existing nanoinformatics initiatives have developed independently and in ad hoc manner within specific communities of practice, such as nanomanufacturing. While coordination and crossfertilization among projects would mitigate redundancy and enhance complementarity, there has been no overarching plan to coordinate these diverse efforts to date. Nanoinformatics 2010 began the process of coordinating activities to standardize practice and encourage data sharing across the community. Results: Nanoinformatics 2010 was an important part of the process of articulating the comprehensive needs and goals for nanoinformatics, as included in the Nanoinformatics 2020 Roadmap. The Roadmap outlines major themes, describes cross-cutting issues, and projects several pilot activities in nanoinformatics. As a primary contributor to this Roadmap, InterNano demonstrates how the expertise and experience of libraries are making a positive impact on emerging communities of practice for Grand Challenge science. 1 http://www.internano.org2 http://www.internano.org/content/view/66/227/3 http://chm.pse.umass.edu/4 http://www.library.umass.edu