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A generally applicable lightweight method for calculating a value structure for tools and services in bioinformatics infrastructure projects
- Source :
- Briefings in Bioinformatics
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Oxford Univ Press, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Sustainable noncommercial bioinformatics infrastructures are a prerequisite to use and take advantage of the potential of big data analysis for research and economy. Consequently, funders, universities and institutes as well as users ask for a transparent value model for the tools and services offered. In this article, a generally applicable lightweight method is described by which bioinformatics infrastructure projects can estimate the value of tools and services offered without determining exactly the total costs of ownership. Five representative scenarios for value estimation from a rough estimation to a detailed breakdown of costs are presented. To account for the diversity in bioinformatics applications and services, the notion of service-specific ‘service provision units’ is introduced together with the factors influencing them and the main underlying assumptions for these ‘value influencing factors’. Special attention is given on how to handle personnel costs and indirect costs such as electricity. Four examples are presented for the calculation of the value of tools and services provided by the German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI): one for tool usage, one for (Web-based) database analyses, one for consulting services and one for bioinformatics training events. Finally, from the discussed values, the costs of direct funding and the costs of payment of services by funded projects are calculated and compared.
- Subjects :
- Big Data
Paper
Consultants
Total cost
Computer science
media_common.quotation_subject
cost factors
0206 medical engineering
Big data
02 engineering and technology
Web Browser
Bioinformatics
de.NBI
03 medical and health sciences
Indirect costs
value estimation for offered tools and services
Humans
service
Molecular Biology
030304 developmental biology
media_common
Structure (mathematical logic)
Estimation
Information Services
0303 health sciences
bioinformatics infrastructure
Factor cost
business.industry
value-influencing
factors
provision unit
Computational Biology
value-influencing factors
service provision unit
Payment
Models, Economic
Facility Design and Construction
Value (economics)
Costs and Cost Analysis
business
020602 bioinformatics
Software
Information Systems
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Briefings in Bioinformatics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d67bc5253d0160cf9abce1fb47d8eb43