Community Engagement and User-Centered Design Underpin the Product Development of the National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC)
Authors:
Julia Kelliher3* ([email protected]), Alicia Clum1, Anastasiya Prymolenna2, Antonio Camargo1, Bea Meluch2, Bin Hu3, Brynn Zalmanek2, Cameron Giberson2, Camilo Posso2, Chien-Chi Lo3, Chris Mungall1, Donny Winston5, Eric Cavanna1, Francie Rodriguez3, Grant Fujimoto2, James Tessmer2, Jeff Baumes4, Jing Cao5, Kaitlyn Li3, Katherine Heal2, Kaylee Kudish3, Kevin Fox2, Kjiersten Fagnan1, Leah Johnson3, Lee Ann McCue2, Mark Flynn3, Mark Miller1, Mary Salvi4, Michael Thornton1, Michal Babinski3, Migun Shakya3, Mike Nagler4, Montana Smith2, Patrick Chain3, Patrick Kalita1, Paul Piehowski2, Po-E (Paul) Li3, Samuel Purvine2, Set Sarrafan1, Shalki Shrivastava1, Shane Canon1, Shreyas Cholia1, Sierra Moxon1, Simon Roux1, Sujay Patil1, Wendi Lynch1, Yan Xu3, Yuri Corilo2, Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh1 (PI)
Institutions:
1Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; 2Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; 3Los Alamos National Laboratory; 4Kitware Inc; 5Polyneme LLC
URLs:
Abstract
The National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) is a multinational laboratory initiative focused on advancing innovation and discovery in the field of microbiome science through the project’s development of products and tools for the environmental microbiome research community (Wood-Charlson et al. 2020). The NMDC provides the community with three products: (1) The Submission Portal, (2) NMDC Empowering the Development of Genomics Expertise (EDGE), and (3) The Data Portal (Eloe-Fadrosh et al. 2022), each aimed at making multiomics microbiome data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). The NMDC team utilizes a user-centered design approach through the implementation of insights gleaned from user research, usability testing, and community feedback to continuously improve its products. This team routinely engages with microbiome researchers to discuss how they want the NMDC products to look and operate, as well as understand what new functionality would benefit future research.
The NMDC communicates and engages with many types of stakeholders, including funding agencies, publishers, institutions, programs, projects, and individual scientists. As part of these collaborative efforts, NMDC hosts and co-hosts workshops (Vangay et al. 2021), webinars, presentations, panel discussions, and other events aimed at spreading awareness of and lowering barriers to adoption of FAIR principles in microbiome research and data generation.
The NMDC Ambassador Program (microbiomedata.org/ambassadors) allows early career researchers to host some of these events, thus expanding the overall reach of the content and training materials, while providing the Ambassadors with valuable experiences and career opportunities. The NMDC Champions Program (microbiomedata.org/community/championsprogram) brings together microbiome researchers from diverse backgrounds to contribute to the NMDC (e.g., by beta-testing the NMDC products, co-authoring publications with the NMDC team, providing feedback). The NMDC will continue to prioritize community engagement as its products and network grow. The NMDC engagement strategy focuses on promoting a collaborative ecosystem for diverse microbiome researchers and implementing community feedback in all of the NMDC efforts and products.
References
Eloe-Fadrosh, E. A., et al. 2022. “The National Microbiome Data Collaborative Data Portal: An Integrated Multi-Omics Microbiome Data Resource,” Nucleic Acids Research 50(D1), D828–36. DOI:10.1093/nar/gkab990.
Vangay, P., et al. 2021. “Microbiome Metadata Standards: Report of the National Microbiome Data Collaborative’s Workshop and Follow-On Activities,” mSystems 6, e01194– 20. DOI:10.1128/mSystems.01194-20.
Wood-Charlson, E. M., et al. 2020. “The National Microbiome Data Collaborative: Enabling Microbiome Science,” Nature Reviews Microbiology 18(6), 313–4. DOI:10.1038/s41579020-0377-0.