Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC) Research Enablement and Integration Support

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering requires a contract vehicle to support the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center's expanding role as a shared biomedical imaging resource across the National Institutes of Health. Multiple institutes are actively seeking support for recurring, similar needs, including making medical imaging data accessible to researchers, linking imaging collections to other research platforms, and building the governance and technical infrastructure needed to do so in a controlled, high-quality, and sustainable way. These needs arise at different times, at different scales, and with varying technical approaches that cannot be fully defined in advance. This contract provides a flexible, task-order-based vehicle through which the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering can authorize planning, pilot, and implementation work across participating institutes as needs arise, starting with focused planning efforts and, where evidence supports it, scaling to pilots or broader implementation through this or other available contracting vehicles. The goal is a unified, cost-effective approach to imaging data management across the federal biomedical research enterprise, leveraging existing infrastructure and expertise rather than allowing each institute to independently build duplicative, one-off solutions.

If this contract is not established, no dedicated mechanism will exist to coordinate these efforts across institutes. Each institute would independently pursue its own contracting approach to address functionally identical needs, resulting in duplicative acquisitions, inconsistent technical standards, and higher collective costs. The Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center, built with significant federal investment to serve as a unified, scalable imaging resource, would be unable to systematically extend its capabilities to new partners, undermining that investment and the center's long-term sustainability. Institute-level efforts already in active planning would be delayed or abandoned, leaving decades of federally funded imaging data underutilized and slowing research that could accelerate discovery across a broad range of diseases and conditions.