General policy for allocation of resources produced by the Scientific Cores

The Steering Committee will review and approve requests for resources by Participating Investigators and the public. Materials available from the Cores will be prominently displayed on the Consortium website. Requests for materials for experiments within the scope of the program will be expected to identify which glycan-binding protein (GBP) will be studied and which Specific Aims will be addressed. Such requests will be granted under the condition that all data resulting from materials produced with program resources will be deposited into the Central Database of the Information and Bioinformatics Core (B). These procedures are anticipated to provide the program with information on the status of research being conducted on each GBP and to signal when additional resources or targeted recruitment of additional Participating Investigators are needed to accomplish the Specific Aims. Requests of materials for use outside the scope of the program are also appropriate. In the event that materials are limiting, priority will be given to requests for experiments deemed by the Steering Committee to be of the highest priority to the program.

Materials will typically be supplied under an MTA which shall comply with the published proposed NIH Guidelines for disseminating biomedical research resources: (http://ott.od.nih.gov/NewPages/RTguide_final.html).

Procedures for posting, requesting and allocating resources

1. Posting availability of resources. Each Core will maintain a list of available resources on the website and update it as additional resources become available. Each material resource will have a unique identifier (ID number) that will be issued by the Information and Bioinformatics Core (B).

2. Requesting resources. Resources posted on the website may be requested at any time by filling out a web-based request form on the Consortium website. Requests will (1) provide information about the investigator, (2) identify the resource (with ID number) and amount requested, and (3) the experiments proposed. Please provide sufficient detail for evaluation by the Steering Committee. Participating Investigators will also be required to (4) stipulate which GBP(s) and which Specific Aim(s) the experiments will address.

3. Review of requests. The request will be received by the Administrative Core (A), logged in and immediately sent by e-mail to both the Director and Coordinator of the appropriate Core. For each request received, the Director will confirm the availability of the resource, and if not available or not available in sufficient amounts, indicate whether or not it will be available in the future and the approximate timing.

4. Approval of requests. Before each regular Steering Committee meeting (see Steering Committee meeting schedule), each Core Director will provide a list of resource requests and a determination of the availability of the resources to the Coordinator. The Coordinator will present the recommendation of the Core for allocation of resources to the Steering Committee. If the resource is limiting, the Steering Committee will recommend allocation of the resource based on program priorities.

5. Approval notification and distribution of resources. Following the review of the request the investigator will be notified whether it has been approved, and if not, whether or not the resource will become available in the future. Typically, resources will be transferred under a standard Materials Transfer Agreement.

6. Commitment of investigators. As a condition of receiving resources for experiments within the scope of the program, each investigator will agree to deposit resulting data into the Central Database as outlined in the Consortium guidelines for data and materials sharing (datashare). The investigator will identify a person in his/her laboratory who will be trained to input data using the web interface of the Central Database. Data are expected to be deposited at a minimum of once each quarter.