Multi-Consortia Coordinating Center (MC2 Center) for Cancer Biology: Building Interdisciplinary Scientific Communities, Coordinating Impactful Resource Sharing, and Advancing Cancer Research

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Project Summary Systems Biology has been an instrumental approach to overcoming challenges in biomedical research, where solutions arise from interdisciplinary efforts, shared resources (data, tools, models, expertise) and integrative analyses. The NCI Division of Cancer Biology (DCB) has created multiple consortia comprising interdisciplinary communities of scientists who aim to integrate approaches, data, and tools to address important questions in basic and translational cancer research. The Multi-Consortia Coordinating (MC2) Center for Cancer Biology will work across programs to motivate engagement and collaboration, support resource sharing, and disseminate knowledge and resources to the broader scientific community. The MC2 Center will operate through three hubs. The Collaboration Hub will use evidence-based strategies to catalyze interactions and new collaborations. An evaluation framework will be developed with quantitative and qualitative metrics to ensure the center continuously improves its impact. Community engagement activities will include working groups, special interest groups, DREAM Challenges, and Ideation Jams, all of which will have mechanisms for ensuring inclusion and promoting diversity. To facilitate sharing of resources from DCB programs, the Resource Coordination Hub will ensure all resources are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR); it will identify or develop open and FAIR standards and best practices; provide training on how to implement these standards and practices in the cancer research community; and provide tooling and interfaces to facilitate resource sharing, curation, and deposition in public repositories. Finally, the Outreach Hub will enhance dissemination of knowledge and resources through training materials to maximize utilization of tools and short courses and workshops that bring concepts and resources from across the DCB programs together, enabling the broader community to experience the power of an integrative interdisciplinary approach to cancer. The Cancer Complexity Knowledge Portal will continue to provide open access to all data, tools, and other resources generated through the DCB and MC2, highlighting discoveries and enabling exploration into the many valuable resources generated by DCB programs.