ENCODE and modENCODE Projects

ENCODE Consortium Criteria for Participation

The ENCODE Consortium is open to all academic, government and private sector scientists who are interested in participating in an open process to facilitate the comprehensive interpretation of the human genome sequence and agree to the criteria for participation described below.

Criteria for participation in the ENCODE Consortium are:
  1. Each participant will inform the NHGRI and the ENCODE Consortium members about his/her group's experimental plans.

  2. Each participant will specify the scale of his/her proposed project as either pilot-scale or whole genome-scale.

    1. Each pilot-scale participant will agree to analyze the entire set of selected regions and not just a subset of the target sequences. A collaborative research group composed of several laboratories, each analyzing a part of the target sequences with a shared experimental approach, can participate, provided that the group as a whole will gather data on the entire set of target regions and that the leader of the group will take responsibility for this.

    2. Each genome-scale participant will agree to work on the entire human genome, and should define "entire genome", i.e., should clearly describe the way(s), if any, in which the approach used will not be able to analyze all three billion bases of the human genome.

  3. Each participant is expected to contribute significantly to the project, bringing his/her particular expertise to bear on accomplishing the goals of the Consortium in a timely manner. Participation in the Consortium should consist of more than deposition of data to the shared database and should include substantial intellectual contributions to the Project.

  4. Each participant will share results according to the ENCODE Data Release Policy.

  5. Each participant will take part in group activities, including attending periodic workshops to discuss the project's progress and coordinating the publication of research results.

  6. Each participant will fully disclose all publicly funded algorithms, software source code and experimental methods to the other members of the Consortium for purposes of scientific evaluation and is strongly encouraged to disseminate this information to the broad scientific community.

  7. Each participant agrees that s/he will not disclose confidential information obtained from other members of the Consortium.

  8. Additional criteria may be added upon recommendations of the ENCODE External Consultants Panel.

An investigator who is interested in applying for membership to the ENCODE Consortium should provide a description of no more than three pages of work he or she proposes to conduct as part of the Consortium, as well as a statement of agreement to abide by the Criteria for Participation listed above to ENCODE Program Staff. Items that should be included in the description of proposed work and that will be used to evaluate acceptance into the Consortium are:

  1. A concise plan, including specification of the scale of the proposed project (pilot-scale or whole genome-scale) and a rationale for how the proposed research efforts address the goal of the ENCODE Project to comprehensively identify functional elements.

  2. Evidence that the proposed technology is capable of high-throughput, efficient and accurate identification of functional elements.

  3. Evidence of the ability to work at the proposed scale (pilot or whole genome).

  4. Evidence of funding to conduct the proposed research.

  5. An agreement to abide by the ENCODE Data Release Policy.

  6. An agreement to fully participate in ENCODE Consortium activities.

The description will be reviewed by NHGRI staff and the ENCODE External Consultants Panel to determine whether an investigator will be accepted into the Consortium. The participation of members will be reviewed yearly by NHGRI staff and the External Consultants Panel.

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Last Updated: February 18, 2012