Portfolio Analysis of Research Grants in Data Science Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Leveraging emerging opportunities in data science to open new frontiers in heart, lung, blood, and sleep research is one of the major strategic objectives of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), one of the 27 Institutes/Centers within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). To assess NHLBI's recent funding of research grants in data science and to identify its relative areas of focus within data science, a portfolio analysis from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2017 was performed. In this portfolio analysis, an efficient and reliable methodology was used to identify data science research grants by utilizing several NIH databases and search technologies (iSearch, Query View Reporting system, and IN-SPIRE [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA]). Six hundred thirty data science-focused extramural research grants supported by NHLBI were identified using keyword searches based primarily on NIH's working definitions of bioinformatics and computational biology. Further analysis characterized the distribution of these grants among the heart, lung, blood, and sleep disease areas as well as the subtypes of data science projects funded by NHLBI. Information was also collected for data science research grants funded by other NIH institutes/centers using the same search and analysis methodology. The funding comparison among different NIH institutes/centers highlighted relative data science areas of emphasis and further identified opportunities for potential data science areas in which NHLBI could foster research advances.