APBioNet is pleased to announce that it is receiving a $44.8K (Canadian dollar) grant from the International Development Research Centre's (IDRC) Pan Asia Networking (PAN) programme to work on software development for the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Grid, codenamed "APBioBox".
The Pan Asia Networking (PAN) programme pioneers information networking in Asia, linking together people and computer-based information resources on sustainable development from Asian organisations. PanAsia's aim is to promote electronic networking in Asia; the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT); the development and sharing of information resources; and the research and development of Internet systems, technologies and policies. By promoting collaboration in research and development through information use and exchange, PanAsia is connecting individuals and institutions for knowledge sharing across Asia and the world.
Said Maria Lee-Hoon Ng, Senior Regional Program Specialist with PAN, based in the IDRC Regional Office in Singapore, "In PAN, we try to stay at the leading edge; we strive to look at the horizon and encourage ICT applied research in "sunrise" issues. We have identified this bioinformatics programme as a key interface between ICT and the life sciences that has potential of taking off in Asia." IDRC has had a long history of granting highly successful key projects for the advancement of networking in Asia, including award winning projects.
Principal Investigator Shoba Ranganathan who is also APBioNet's Vice President echoed, "Through the Internet, we hope that the region's growing bioinformatics community will be able to avail themselves of the latest bioinformatics software and databases. Our Biomirrors database collaboration with APAN has been very successful. We now need to establish the computational aspects. Last year, APBioNet Secretariat has set up the APBioGrid. This year, we are very glad to receive this grant to follow up on this infrastructure we have set up."
"The grant comes at the right time with the launch of Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) standards recently. It provides the impetus for standard-based development activities in bioinformatics grid," she added.
APBioNet president S Subbiah noted, "We have come a long way with this grant. APBioNet has been involved in coordinating the various aspects of awareness, education and training, conferences, mirrors of biodatabases, and more recently the biogrid. With this grant, we can start moving towards applied software development. In the future, we hope that the research component can come in a bigger way. Our track record has been a slow but steady and consistent progress since 1998. We are very grateful to IDRC for this support."
This grant will be administered by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) on behalf of IDRC, Ottawa, Cananda and by the Dept of Biochemistry, National University of Singapore on behalf of APBioNet.
About APBioNet
The Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet) is a non-profit,
non-governmental, international organization founded in 1998.
It focuses on the promotion of bioinformatics in the Asia Pacific
Region. Since 1998, its mission has been to pioneer the growth and
development of bioinformatics awareness, training, education,
infrastructure, resources and research amongst member countries and
economies. Its work includes the technical coordination, liaison
and/or affiliation with other international bodies such as the
EMBnet and ISCB.
APBioNet has more than 20 organizational and 500 individual members from over 12 countries in the Asia Pacific region, and members include those from industry, academia, research, government, investors and international organizations. APBioNet has coordinated or co-organized more than 20 international and national meetings in cooperation with members in different economies. It is spearheading a number of key bioinformatics initiatives in the region in collaboration with international organizations such as APAN, APEC, S* Alliance and A-IMBN. More about APBioNet can be found at: http://www.apbionet.org/.
Press Contact
APBioNet Secretariat
Email: sec@apbionet.org