[1] To serve the Biomedical community, BIRN is designed to share significant and intensive data between researchers across geographic distance using user driven base software.
BIRN also offers documented best practices, expert advice, data-sharing, and query and analysis software tools specific to biomedical research.
Its experts can help biomedical teams select software, data and metadata community standards; set up security mechanisms and sharing protocols to create multi-institutional policies from a potentially overwhelming range of options.
As a result, BIRN no longer provides hardware, offers or maintain servers (previously called “racks”) for storing user information, or uses participants’ computers as network interchange.
There are no specific project criteria or required sizes, although WGs may consider factors such as research goals, potential impact, technical challenges, host institution and sponsor funding.
On a social level, BIRN looks for groups that understand users’ data-sharing problems and can articulate how those issues affect them in day-to-day, real-world ways.
Because BIRN isn't a plug-and-play, off-the-shelf product, the network seeks prospective users who are committed to conceiving, designing, building and implementing the best solution for their circumstances.