VIVO Six Month Review, April 6, 2010

In all my years working in academe, I must say the last six months of the VIVO project have been some of the most exciting. The VIVO buzz is sweeping the nation. People from all over are talking about VIVO and eagerly awaiting the day they can hook in to the national network. High points for me include my talks with the White House Office of Science, Technology and Policy, engagement with the Clinical and Translational Science Award Consortium, and our national VIVO team meeting in Washington DC.

As you all know, the VIVO grant is a two-year project, and our six month anniversary was March 25. In an effort to celebrate our accomplishments and continue the development of communication across the seven school consortium, we are holding a six month review session on Tuesday, April 6.

The purpose of the review is to recap work to date and prepare for the next six months. The floor is open to anyone about anything. Please bring forward your ideas and constructive criticism. Now is the time to improve how we work together.

Each major group (Outreach, Development, Implementation and Ontology) will present their accomplishments over the last six months and raise issues to be addressed and discussed by the larger VIVO team. We will have reports from Evaluation including survey findings. We will follow with discussions of national networking and collaboration, ontology, and finally our national conference to be held in August.

Over the next six months we will be opening VIVO to the world. We need to consider how this should be done and what consequences we’ll face as a team.

If nothing else, I want each of you to walk away from the review with a shared understanding of the work accomplished to date and an opportunity to openly discuss issues and the future of the project.

Here’s a quick look at the agenda for tomorrow, April 6 (times are in the Eastern time zone):

Each school will have a Facilitator to serve as the primary point of contact during the review. Facilitators are responsible for the following:

• Speak on the school’s behalf, sharing comments throughout the day
• Document and share the informal chat sessions during lunch
• Pass the microphone (or step up to the computer) for others who wish to speak

I am constantly amazed at the commitment and dedication of the VIVO team. It’s no easy task to manage and execute work across multiple institutions in various time zones. The camaraderie of the VIVO team is like none other I have seen, and I find myself continuously overwhelmed by the optimism and tireless energy radiating from each and every one of you.

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Tuesday, April 6!

All the best,
Mike