Bioinformatics training and services in support of faculty research across the campus can provide a competitive advantage for securing funding in a broad range of fields and endeavors: these include the One Health Initiative, global food security, precision medicine, and plant breeding, among others. But ongoing changes in the type and scale of biological data sets require ever more sophisticated technologies, algorithms, and software for effective analysis. In turn, such demands drive the need for increasingly powerful high-performance computing resources that are beyond the means of any single investigator or laboratory to support.

Effectively addressing the challenges and taking advantage of the opportunities in bioinformatics will require careful planning and a coordinated strategic approach across the university. Thus, the charge of this task force is to propose a strategic plan that articulates a vision, goals, and objectives for bioinformatics research support. The plan will also discuss alternative ideas and deliver recommendations for governance, organizational structure, and funding models to achieve the identified objectives.