Who We Are
The Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Sciences (IIDS) is a research institute within the Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED) at the University of Idaho. The mission of IIDS is to empower researchers to fully harness the potential of the data revolution by provisioning and administering critical university research infrastructure related to genomics, bioinformatics, research computing, and data science. IIDS houses three service units including Research Computing and Data Services (RCDS), the Genomics and Bioinformatics Resources Core (GBRC), and the Initiative for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies (IBEST). IIDS is a vibrant home for interdisciplinary research between student, postdoc, and faculty participants. IIDS participants can access support for proposal development and grants management, expertise, infrastructure, training, and professional development activities.
Questions?News
U of I Granted First NIH Science Education Partnership Award to the State of Idaho
For the first time since its establishment 30 years ago, the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the NIH has awarded funding to a project in Idaho. The SEPA program supports innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and Informal Science Education (ISE) initiatives for Pre-K to 12th grade. U of I researchers Barrie Robison (PI) with the College of Science and Terry Soule (Co-PI) with the College of Engineering have been awarded Idaho’s first SEPA grant through their work with Polymorphic Games, U of I’s unique, interdisciplinary, STEM-based video game studio.
Graduate Student Akshat Mall Receives R.C. Lewontin Early Award
Akshat Mall, a third year grad student in the Christopher Marx lab at the University of Idaho, was selected as one of the R.C. Lewontin Early Award winners by the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE). Mall will be presenting his thesis work on Monday, October 2, 2023 at 9 am PDT and can be seen on Zoom with a link on the SSE home page.
Collaborative Research: As Above So Below
University of Idaho researcher Eric Mittelstaedt, Associate Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, recently received a National Science Foundation award in collaboration with his colleague Catherine (Katie) Cooper, Associate Professor, School of the Environment at Washington State University. The project aims to use numerical simulations to better understand how the Earth cools through time. Earth’s cooling rate affects an amazing array of processes necessary for life on Earth and potentially other planets, such as plate tectonics, volcanism, release of gasses from the planet’s interior, Earth’s magnetic field, etc.
CORE FACILITIES
Genomics Resources Core
The Genomics & Bioinformatics Resources Core (GBRC) provides researchers from the University of Idaho access to technology, experience, and expertise in genomics research. Applications of these technologies are commonly used in biomedical research, but the interdisciplinary focus of the University of Idaho results in a wide range of fields that can benefit from the core, including microbial studies, agricultural studies, forest management, and animal science. The Genomics Resources core is also available to researchers that are external to the University of Idaho.
Research Computing and Data Services
The Research Computing and Data Services serves as the computational backbone for research at the University of Idaho. It provides investigators with state of the art high performance computing and large data storage capacity for use in analyzing and managing large volumes of research data. Users of the core run jobs that may use hundreds of processors in parallel or large memory allocations and may run require weeks to complete. The RCDS data center is explicitly designed to manage the complex computational and storage requirements for UI researchers very high data reliability and availability. The core contains an advanced mix of high performance computing clusters, powerful servers and reliable data storage components as well as the knowledge and technical skills required to compress years of analysis into days.
RCDS provides research data management and computing support for UI researchers and their regional, national, and international collaborators. Support for research data management, curation, and dynamic access keeps our researchers at the cutting-edge of science and increases and enhances our institution's competitiveness for external research grants. Quality data and metadata developed in research projects and curated by NKN is a valuable, long-term asset for a public land-grant University and provides a foundation and source upon which to develop and build new research and science
