News Release

Friday, March 13, 2009

NIH Federated Identity Service Team Wins Award

The National Institutes of Health’s Center for Information Technology (CIT), announces that the Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC) has awarded the prestigious GITEC 2009 Project Management Excellence Award to the NIH Federated Identity Service Team. The Team, led by NIH/CIT colleagues Debbie Bucci and Valerie Wampler, received the award at GITEC’s annual Information Processing Interagency Conference (IPIC), http://www.ipicconference.org/9IP/.

The NIH Federated Identity Service provides biomedical scientists and clinical researchers a virtual community of shared resources across research institutions and disciplines. Such collaboration enhances scientific discoveries and advances the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.

"The success of the NIH Federated Identity Service is an excellent example of how effective project management is relevant to our expanding science and research needs," noted John F. "Jack" Jones, Ph.D., NIH chief information officer (CIO) and acting director of the NIH Center for Information Technology. "Federated authentication greatly increases our ability to collaborate with other research institutions worldwide by facilitating the sharing of publicly available scientific information, applications, and databases."

Federated authentication provides researchers with secure, robust access to research tools through a shareable and interoperable infrastructure. Dr. Jones added: "Authorized collaborators from government agencies, national laboratories, universities, and hospitals, for example, can use the same user name, password, or other personal identification provided by their home institution to access collaboration applications such as SharePoint and Wikis. In addition to the benefits to research, there are also security advantages because the researcher’s home institution is much better able to maintain up-to-date accounts, freeing up NIH resources for science-related efforts."

The NIH Federated Identity Service provides NIH staff with the means to collaborate with colleagues from outside NIH, including those from universities, other Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Operating Divisions (OpDivs), and other federal agencies. The NIH Federated Identity service is enabled through the use of open industry standards and/or openly published specifications. For more information about the NIH Federated Identity Service and its programs, visit http://federatedidentity.nih.gov.

The mission of the NIH Center for Information Technology (CIT) is to provide, coordinate, and manage information technology, and to advance computational science. The vision of CIT is to be a vital partner in the discovery of biomedical knowledge. CIT incorporates the power of modern computers into the biomedical programs and administrative procedures of NIH by focusing on three primary activities: conducting computational biosciences research, developing information systems, and providing computer facilities. For more information about CIT and its programs, visit http://www.cit.nih.gov, or contact Jenny Czajkowski at (301) 496-6203, citcommoffice@mail.nih.gov.

The NIH Office of the Chief Information Officer serves the NIH community by providing leadership and management support to ensure that NIH IT administrative, scientific, and research investments and resources are well planned, effectively managed and in compliance with all federal policies and mandates, adaptable to the IT architecture, and well secured. For more information about the NIH Office of the CIO and its programs, visit http://ocio.nih.gov/, or contact Tom Izzard at (301) 496-5703, izzardt@mail.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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