Biomedical Informatics Research Network - History

History

BIRN began as an NCRR initiative built around several "testbeds," or select projects, in neurology research. In 2008, its mandate expanded significantly to include data-sharing support across the biomedical research community. The network is now open to all biomedical research groups that BIRN believes will benefit from its services, regardless of a group's specialty, mandate, size or U.S. location.

BIRN's mission also has shifted from a repository of users' data to a means of supporting efficient data transfer. 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 nodes.

The user-driven, software-based approach instead supports data sharing on participants’ existing hardware and software. Each user group retains control over, and responsibility for, its own hardware -- and for the security and privacy of its own information. Data is stored on users' systems rather than in a central repository, making possible storage of, and access to, vastly greater data quantities than was possible with BIRN “racks” alone.