About Us

Capabilities of the CBI

• Capabilities

Our Teams

• Geospatial Technologies Program Team
• Informatics Research & Technology Team
• Program Support Team

Collaborations of the CBI

• Collaborations

Capabilities

The Center for Biological Informatics serves as the operating agent for the National Biological Information Infrastructure, hosting various portals (http://www.nbii.gov), managing the NBII search engine, supporting collaboration systems (http://my.nbii.gov) and developing and providing standards and procedures for acquiring, managing, and sharing biological data and information. CBI also develops, identifies, and provides access to tools that facilitate collection and use of biological information and data, and cooperates with others to improve access to existing information and data not housed at the center. It is our intent that informatics, applied in this way, will be helpful and, indeed, indispensible for scientists, research biologists, resource managers, decision makers, educators, and the public. In addition, CBI manages national data collection programs that complement and strengthen its role within the NBII.  Serving of geospatial data and information is through CBI support systems such as the USGS GAP Analysis GapServe (http://gapanalysis.nbii.gov) and the NBII Metadata Clearinghouse (http://metadata.nbii.gov).

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Our Teams

Geospatial Technologies Program Team

Team members provide leadership in geospatial technologies (GT) to USGS and the biological and natural resource communities by creating and maintaining a Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems Laboratory that develops, tests, and validates new GT methodologies of interest to partners and clients. The GT Program Team also coordinates and manages the GAP Analysis Program (GAP), the U.S. Geological Survey-National Park Service (USGS-NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program, and the Land Use History of North America (LUHNA) Program. These programs are leaders in developing new methods, protocols, and products, and provide spatial and biological data and information to clients and partners. Team members coordinate with other government, private, and non-government organizations to develop, implement, and promote geospatial and biological standards.

Informatics Research & Technology Team

Team members investigate ways to improve data mining, analysis, archival, management, and visualization in support of the National Biological Information Infrastructure and other informatics Programs. The Team also provides the necessary support services, architecture and staff to operate the National Biological Information Infrastructure, GAP Analysis, Vegetation Mapping, and other biological informatics sponsored Programs.  Additional activities include data analysis and modeling, developing a geospatially based access system for biological data, and developing a biological thesaurus, among others.

Program Support Team

Team members provide programmatic, technical, administrative, and communications support to the agency, bureau, Office of Biological Informatics and Outreach, Biological Resources Discipline centers, and cooperators. Primary areas of support are in policy and standards development; resource planning, execution, and evaluation; program coordination and liaison; performance reporting; and training.

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Collaborations

The CBI supports various federal, non-federal, and other organizations infrastructure needs primarily through the development of various tools, services, portals, informatics research, and other applications development.   In the area of informatics research, CBI staff are participating in several NSF long-term earth science informatics related grants.  These include the NSF DataONE (http:///dataone.org) – establishing a long-term data network for earth science data and the Virtual Data Center (https://datanet.ecoinformatics.org/vdc) grant.  Both of these activities will allow the CBI to leverage existing tools, standards, infrastructure, and other capabilities that exist within USGS.  Furthermore, newly developed, tools, standards, training, and other science support activities that result from these grants will be incorporated into the USGS and other agency biological data management activities.  

Another collaboration that leverages the Center's significant information technology infrastructure, is CBI's support to the Fire Research And Management Exchange System (FRAMES) (http://frames.nbii.gov).  FRAMES is a systematic method of exchanging information and transferring technology between wildland fire researchers, managers, and other stakeholders. In partnership with the US Geological Survey’s National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Program, FRAMES is implementing web-based technologies that can help bridge the gap between science and management. The goal is to make wildland fire data, metadata, tools, and other information resources easy to find, access, distribute, compare, and use. In collaboration, the wildland fire research and management communities can use these technologies to help eliminate redundancy, reduce costs, and promote increased productivity and efficiency.

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