Table 1

Attributes of each of the tiers

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3


Goal

Explore and analyze new areas of biology

Organize an appropriate area of biology

Aggregate across all biology, provide information infrastructures

Main style of funding

Response-mode and strategic grants for specific key datasets

Strategic grants for an area of biology, with portions of response-mode grants for specific datasets

Infrastructure funds, coupled to portions of strategic grants for specific biological areas

Time horizon of group

Grant-driven, 3-5 years

Strategic grant driven, 5-10 years

Infrastructure driven, 10-20 years

Examples

Many response-mode laboratories in universities and academic institutions

Bioinformatics resource centers (BRCs), model organism databases

EBI (Ensembl, Ensembl Genomes), NCBI (RefSeq)


Parkhill et al. Genome Biology 2010 11:402   doi:10.1186/gb-2010-11-7-402