The NMDC Champions Program
Enabling researchers to regularly engage with and contribute to the NMDC program.
| Do you appreciate the value of well-curated data? | Would you like to tell others about the NMDC? | Are you excited about data sharing and reuse? | Are you interested in advocating for the importance of FAIR microbiome data? |
I am honored to be an NMDC Champion and to advocate for open science as I strongly believe in the NMDC mission and hope to contribute to it through the development and dissemination of research practices and tools that help standardize data, increase data reusability, and make data more accessible to all.
Aaron Robinson (LANL)
Staff Scientist
As an NMDC Champion, I will seek to connect and engage with microbiome researchers to tackle local and regional infrastructure challenges. I believe it is time for the microbiome community to push for an adaptable system that supports metadata curation, shared ownership of data, and seamless cross-study partnerships. I also hope to further give the FAIR Microbiome IN an international presence, allowing us to meet the NMDC objective of becoming a community-driven, integrative data science ecosystem.
Ahmed Shibl (New York University Abu Dhabi)
Research Associate
As an NMDC Champion, I aim to foster strong networking opportunities among researchers, promote data sharing, and contribute to advancing the mission of the NMDC. I am committed to supporting the integration of environmental microbiome data into global datasets, ensuring that this critical information is accessible and used to address pressing environmental challenges.
Aishwarya Santosh Deshpande (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Postdoctoral Research Associate
I became a NMDC Champion to promote applied, practical applications of environmental microbial ecology. We need to develop a reliable framework for data standards, which is an an important and timely task.
Alex Honeyman (Colorado School of Mines)
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
I hope as an NMDC Champion I can apply my knowledge of data rescue, scientific gateways, and data integration efforts to support the ongoing work of NMDC and advocate for FAIR microbiome data.
Alexis Garretson (George Mason University)
Graduate Research Fellow
I believe microbiome data helps us better understand our world and our health. Making this data more accessible and adherent to FAIR data practices would provide opportunities for meaningful analyses that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
Alonna Wright (UC Davis)
PhD Candidate
I believe in the power of Open Science and the importance of the FAIR data principles. By ensuring data is accessible and reusable, we can drive impactful and reproducible research, unlocking new scientific insights from previously collected data. I look forward to contributing to a culture that promotes innovation and transparency in data analysis.
Amanda Araujo Serrao de Andrade (University of Calgary)
Postdoctoral Researcher
I am looking forward to learning how to improve my communication about data and metadata with my colleagues.
Amanda Windsor (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
Staff Fellow Research Biologist
I joined the NMDC Champions to promote good data stewardship practices that allow microbiome data and metadata to be readily discovered and reused.
Anders Kiledal (University of Michigan)
Assistant Research Scientist
I am really excited to be an NMDC Champion because of the opportunity this will give me to contribute towards re-use, and equitable access of data. There is also a great need to bring together data from multiple repositories, ecosystems and disciplines. I look forward to advancing this.
Archana Anand (San Francisco State University)
Assistant Professor
I am very excited to contribute to NMDC’s mission of promoting FAIR microbiome data access and sharing. I look forward to sharing my expertise with fellow NMDC Champions and learning from their insights through this platform.
Archana Yadav (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Postdoctoral fellow
Asa Conover (UC Berkeley)
PhD Student
As a Ph.D. student in microbial agroecology, becoming an NMDC Champion lets me advocate for the kind of data practices I wish I’d had from the start: FAIR principles that promote reusability, transparency, and long-term value. I’m passionate about bridging microbiome data with real-world applications, and standardized metadata is key to making those connections.
Ashlynn Morin (Michigan State University)
PhD Student
As a Ph.D. student in Systems Medicine (Computational Biology), I have joined NMDC with a dedicated commitment to advancing open science through the advocacy for standardized metadata practices. Bringing expertise in bioinformatics, specifically in multi-omic gut microbiome analysis, my focus aligns seamlessly with NMDC's mission. I am devoted to contributing to the establishment of robust metadata standards, specifically tailored for applications in machine learning to advance our understanding of the gut microbiome
Bablu Kumar (University of Milan)
Ph.D. Student
I'm excited to be a Champion because I want to help make microbiome analysis pipelines more accessible to veterans and newcomers alike. By encouraging accessibility and reproducibility among researchers, I believe we will be able to obtain more meaningful insights from our datasets in an effective and efficient manner.
Beatrice Severance (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
PhD Student
I became an NMDC champion because of the great need to develop systems that bring together data from multiple microbiome data repositories. The development of these systems is a truly exciting opportunity to advance an emerging branch of science.
Bill Duncan (LBNL)
I am excited to be an NMDC Champion because it gives me the opportunity to advance data-driven research by promoting open-access to data and collaboration in meta-omics approaches.
Binda Andongma (Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee)
PhD candidate
Beautifully harmonized metadata is like a love letter to the future. NMDC is the global community and service making sure these letters get delivered!
Bonnie Hurwitz (University of Arizona)
Associate Professor
I am most looking forward to sharing my excitement about the potential of metadata standards and engaging the larger research community to amass the same excitement.
Brandon Kocurek (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
Staff Fellow Biologist
What drives me ultimately to advocate for FAIR microbiome data is accessibility. This means not only finding data files but importantly, the context in which the data derives from. Knowledge sharing and communication is the best way forward. I believe that a greater understanding of Earth’s microbiomes will inspire new tools and approaches for future challenges.
Buck Hanson (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Scientist
I would like to contribute towards improved data transparency and accessibility within the scientific community. With the growing amount of microbiome sequencing data, it has become ever so important to make datasets easily accessible to drive reproducible research, enhance collaboration, and support innovation of new bioinformatic tools or analyses pipelines.
Car Reen Kok (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Postdoctoral Researcher
I would like to be an advocate to the community for reproducible workflows, open code and do more than just lead by example, but work to educate others on these topics.
Cassie Ettinger (University of California, Riverside)
Postdoctoral Researcher
As an NMDC Champion, I aim to connect, collaborate, and contribute to the microbiome research community, promoting shared resource development and advocating for data sharing and reuse.
Chhedi Gupta (ICMR-National Institute of Immunohaematology, India)
Scientist-C (Bioinformatics)
I am looking forward to collaborating with a group of people who share my passion for making data accessible.
Chloe Herman (Northern Arizona University)
Ph.D. student
As an NMDC Champion, my main motivation is to remove any and all barriers for the use of microbiome data and tools. Greater accessibility means more microbiome scientists — which we desperately need to answer study Earth's many microbiomes. To achieve this outcome, I am a strong advocate for FAIR microbiome data practices and am personally invested in teaching and disseminating these practices to as many scientists as I can — especially scientists that come from emerging scientific institutions.
Chris Robinson (Indiana University)
PhD Candidate
I'm happy to join NMDC because it will enable faster and accurate development of new predictive methods for advanced microbiome analysis.
Cristal Zuniga (San Diego State University )
Assistant Professor
I'm passionate about learning, teaching, and advocating for reusable data and reproducible workflows in microbiome sciences—NMDC is the ideal community for this!
Daniela Betancurt-Anzola (Pennsylvania State University)
PhD Student
I look forward to working with like-minded researchers through the NMDC and becoming a local leader in promoting metadata standards and FAIR data principles. I pursue a future where microbiome data continues to see use beyond the group that generated it.
Daniel Farthing (Oregon State University)
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
I'm excited to be an NMDC Champion because it gives me a platform to promote sound data management and analysis practices in the microbiome sciences. When researchers are able to easily reuse publicly-available microbiome data, it opens the door for new analyses and insights that the original authors never dreamed of!
Daniel Sprockett (Cornell University)
Postdoctoral Associate
I’m excited to be an NMDC Champion to help promote open science and FAIR data practices within the microbiome research community. I look forward to contributing to broader conversations around data accessibility and collaboration, especially as they relate to environmental and agricultural microbiome studies.
Durga Purushotham Mahesh Chinthalapudi (Mississippi State University)
PhD Candidate
I'm excited to be a Champion to both learn and teach about making data in microbiome sciences as useful and reusable as possible.
Emily Davenport (Penn State University)
Assistant Professor
Making microbiome metadata FAIR is essential for future pooled or meta-analyses to understand the impact of the microbiome on human health and disease. I’m excited to contribute to this effort as an NMDC Champion
Emily Vogtmann (National Cancer Institute)
Investigator
As an NMDC Champion focusing on the marine microbiome, my objective is to harness the principles of open science to facilitate research, indeed this approach not only promotes scientific innovation but also advances our understanding of marine biodiversity and ecosystem function. By fostering an environment of collaborative and transparent research, we can accelerate discoveries that are critical for marine conservation and management.
Federica Montesanto (University of Florida)
Postdoctoral Fellow
I’ve realized that besides using your datasets to answer your own scientific questions, they can also be useful for other researchers. Reuse of data would not only save time and funding resource, but may also represent a timepoint that they may no longer be recovered. With microbiomes evolving at such a high complexity, sharing data and metadata are critical for research.
Geizecler Tomazetto (University of Pittsburgh)
Senior Research Scientist
I became an NMDC champion because I believe that good science should be not only reproducible, but reusable, and promoting data standards allows important insights to emerge from old data sets.
Geoffrey Zahn (Utah Valley University )
Associate Professor
I’m excited to be an NMDC Champion because I believe that data transparency, standardization, and collaboration are essential for advancing microbiome research. I look forward to sharing my expertise, learning from fellow NMDC Champions, and increasing awareness and adoption of NMDC resources in academia and industry.
Haley Nolen (BiOWiSH Technologies)
Soil Microbiologist
I am excited to be an NMDC Champion to keep engaging with the microbiome research community!
Heng-An Lin (Agricen Sciences )
Research Associate III
I am excited to contribute to the promotion of standards and practices that ensure high quality data are freely accessible to all.
Holly Lutz (University of California, San Diego)
Assistant Project Scientist
Data reuse enables science to move forward by seeing what we weren’t looking for the first time. Making our data accessible through metadata repositories like the NMDC allows us to expedite our data reuse applications as well as make sure we are providing enough metadata for others to build knowledge.
Ishi Keenum (Michigan Tech University)
Assistant Professor
I am passionate about NMDC's mission of open science practice and making microbial data accessible to everyone.
Iyanu Oduwole (University of Tennessee - Knoxville)
PhD Student
I’m looking forward to networking with other people who are working at the interface of microbiology and data analytics, and helping elevate the visibility of metaproteomics in the omics informatics space.
Jaci Saunders (University of Georgia)
Assistant Professor
I strongly advocate for FAIR microbiome data in my field and have strove to incorporate detailed metadata in all of my studies. As a researcher who uses multi-omics to study diverse environments, I appreciate when others’ data is FAIR, so that I may draw parallels between our work. Simply put, advocating for, and implementing FAIR data is just the right thing to do.
Jason Rothman (University of California, Riverside)
Assistant Professor
As an NMDC Champion, I'm excited to contribute to NMDC's mission and collaborate with a group of scientists who share the same vision in advocating for FAIR data practices.
Jennifer Liem (University of Washington)
PhD Candidate
“I am excited about the potential for microbiome research to improve human health, and I believe we need to improve rigor and reproducibility to achieve that potential.”
Jenny Bratburd (UW Madison)
PhD Candidate
Standardizing data and metadata is increasingly critical to microbiome research. Such an undertaking requires a collaborative team effort, and I am eager to contribute to this important work.
Jiaxian Shen (Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School)
Postdoc Research Fellow
I became an NMDC champion because I want to work together toward a culture of open and multi-disciplinary science--enabling global search and integration of microbiomes with associated environmental data now and in the future.
Joan Damerow (LBNL)
Postdoctoral Fellow
João Carlos Setubal (University of Sao Paulo)
Professor
As an NMDC Champion, I am excited to promote resources and design standards that ensure easy access to data and associated metadata for the microbiome research community. These resources and standards serve to decrease the barrier of entry for researchers across the world, allowing for efficient reuse of data for new scientific endeavors.
Joel Swift (University of Kansas)
Postdoctoral Fellow
I became an NMDC Champion because I am interested in collaborating to develop new technologies for managing data. I am particularly interested in solving long-standing challenges in making data truly interoperable and reusable.
John-Marc Chandonia (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Computational Biologist Research Scientist
I really enjoyed working with the NMDC as an Ambassador, and I’m very excited to continue that journey as a Champion! Here’s towards a future of microbiology where nobody gets left behind.
Josué Rodríguez-Ramos (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Postdoctoral Fellow
I became an NMDC Champion because I am excited to be part of this collaborative community developing efforts to increase awareness, access and engagement in the microbiome research community.
JP Dundore-Arias (California State University, Monterey Bay)
Assistant Professor
I became an NMDC champion to promote consistent metadata, data acquisition standards, and data analysis workflows from the metagenome community to other meta*omics studies, researchers, and communities.
Judson Hervey (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL))
Research Biologist
I became an NMDC Champion to help advance the implementation of FAIR data practices in my microbiome research and across the broader scientific community.
Judy Malas (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Postdoctoral Research Scholar
Science relies on our ability to replicate data. Transparency in data science requires access to the same datasets. Meta analysis requires access to consistent datasets. I'd like to help shape the future of microbiome metadata and find a way to make data more accessible.
Justine Debelius (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
Assistant Scientist
I look forward to joining the NMDC Champions and the collaborative effort to create a FAIR microbiome data research ecosystem, as I believe this ultimately advances microbiome science and its ability to meet societal needs!
Kacie Kajihara (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)
PhD Student
I am excited to join the team of NMDC Champions working to develop resources and best practices for microbiome data as I strongly believe that standardization and accessibility propels microbiome science forward, and allows us to collectively address critical scientific questions through collaborative efforts!
Kaela Amundson (Colorado State University)
Postdoctoral Researcher
Research using microbiome data continually transforms our understanding of life on Earth. Building an accessible, transparent, and robust data science ecosystem will enable more collaborative, reproducible, and impactful science.
Kate Lane (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute / Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Ph.D. Student
I’m excited to be part of NMDC and promote metadata standards because making data FAIR will ensure equal access for everyone to make new discoveries.
Kevin Myers (Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center)
Scientist
I became an NMDC Champion because I believe in Open Science and FAIR Guiding Principles. These standards will improve the use of public data and metadata to generate new studies and knowledge.
Leandro Nascimento Lemos (The State University of Campinas)
Postdoctoral Fellow
I thoroughly enjoyed my time as an NMDC Ambassador and am excited to continue contributing to both the NMDC and the broader scientific community. As an NMDC Champion, I look forward to fostering collaborations, advancing microbiome research, and promoting the standardization and management of data to inspire greater insights and collaborative efforts within microbial ecology.
Lennel Camuy-Vélez (North Dakota State University)
PhD Student
My time as an NMDC Ambassador was incredibly rewarding, discussing and promoting FAIR practices. I'm excited to continue this work, now as an NMDC Champion, particularly driven by my commitment to advocating for the accessibility of code, data, and especially metadata. Every dataset is precious, and reusing it is key to answering big questions in the microbiome field.
Lilian Caesar (Indiana University)
Postdoctoral Researcher
By making our data and analyses accessible, understandable, and shareable, we can work together to unravel the complexities within microbial communities across the globe. The fact that this is not the most important aspect in microbial ecology, in science in general, is a disservice to all of us. I am passionate about making data analysis understandable for all researchers, and being an NMDC Champion would allow me to turn this passion into action.
Linton Freund (University of California, Riverside)
Ph.D. Candidate
I’m looking forward to learning how to empower others to increase the usability and accessibility of microbiome data.
Lisa Karstens (Oregon Health and Science University)
Associate Professor
Thrilled to join this community and collaborate with researchers to make meaningful contributions to the microbiome research field.
Lu Yang (Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine, University of California San Francisco)
Computational Biologist
I am excited to be an NMDC Champion because our community has a special opportunity to make our data more reusable -- empowering scientists, citizens, and governments to use this data for research, medicine, conservation, and restoration.
Luke Thompson (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration)
Associate Research Professor
As an NMDC Champion I aim to promote FAIR data practices in the global south. Bringing the practices developed by the NMDC into Africa specifically is a passion of mine.
Marc Van Goethem (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST))
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
I am excited to be an NMDC Champion to promote the highest metadata standards to enable the reusage of our data for global research questions.
Mark McCauley (USGS - Wetland and Aquatic Research Center)
Biologist
I became a NMDC Champion to promote the FAIR microbiome data initiative which allows for more collaboration and increased reusability of data to answer outstanding scientific questions.
Marie Kroeger (In-Pipe Technology, Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Chief Science Officer, Guest Scientist
I'm excited about engaging with the research community to improve metadata standards!
Mikayla A. Borton (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Postdoctoral Research Associate
I am excited to contribute to and learn about the advancement of data transparency and accessibility in microbiome research
Mitiku Seyoum (University of Arkansas)
Post-Doctoral Fellow
I want to learn from and collaborate with the NMDC community to make microbiome data FAIR. Making currently generated microbiome data FAIR will allow us in the future to ask and answer research questions without wasting more resources to generate similar data.
Moamen Elmassry (Princeton University)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
My experience with non-model organisms showed me the need for solid data stewardship and sticking to FAIR principles. As an NMDC Champion, I want to help shape standardized data practices to boost the quality and reach of microbiome data
Mustafa Guzel (University of Tennessee)
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
FAIR microbiome data is necessary to support collaborations and future research analyses. It is important to assess the data quality and connect the metadata, including sample processing and data creation/analyses steps. I became a NMDC champion to help test workflows and make microbiome data FAIR.
Nancy Merino (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Postdoctoral Researcher
I'm excited to help make data open, accessible, and reusable to leverage our knowledge of marine ecosystems for research and conservation!
Natalia Erazo (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
Ph.D. Student
I joined the NMDC Champions program to help streamline and ease the process of accessing microbial data and utilizing software tools. This will help push the field forward, and as scientists, we share the responsibility to make information available. I am excited to join this group and contribute to the cause
Natascha Varona (University of Miami)
Ph.D. Student
I'm eager to be a NMDC Champion and engage with the microbiome research community to promote reusable and accurate microbiome data that addresses pressing ecological questions.
Quinn Moon (University of Michigan)
PhD candidate
I am excited to be an NMDC Champion to continue to learn and promote best practices in microbiome data analysis and stewardship. I am also very excited to be a part of the NMDC mission to make microbiome data more accessible and usable for all researchers.
Reid Longley (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Postdoctoral Fellow
I’m very excited to be an Ambassador for the NMDC since I’m a big proponent of integrating data from around the world to bring science and scientists together.
Ryan McClure (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Microbiologist
I became an NMDC Champion in order to help build a community of scientists and institutions dedicated to enabling open access to molecular data that can be used to generate insights into human health and disease.
Ryan Toma (Viome Life Sciences)
Research Scientist
I am grateful to be an NMDC Champion because I get to continue learning (and teaching others) about how to make microbiome data reusable and standardized across systems. I believe FAIR microbiome data is pivotal for advancing collaborations, reproducibility, and our understanding of the microbial world. I am excited to work with a community of researchers that share similar values.
Sarai Finks (The Pennsylvania State University)
Postdoctoral Scholar
Savanah Senn (Los Angeles Pierce College)
Faculty
I want to be a part of the process for defining FAIR standards and integrations, as this data is important and expensive to acquire and therefore should be responsibly managed. The need for standards and methods for integration is essential.
Sean Cleveland (University of Hawai'i)
Cyberinfrastructure Research Scientist
I became an NMDC Champion because I believe that access to usable public data and metadata is a right and not a privilege.
Sean Gibbons (Institute for Systems Biology)
Assistant Professor
I am thrilled to be an NMDC Champion because I am passionate about scientific advancement and fostering a collaborative, community-driven data ecosystem. I aim to continuously promote data curation, management, and integration, ensuring that discovery research remains open, reproducible, and impactful for the broader scientific community.
Seto Ogunleye (University of Pennsylvania )
Postdoctoral Researcher
I'm honored to be a member of NMDC community. I’m excited to meet the big microbiome research community and make the contribution to promote and advocate the accessibility, transparency and reusability of microbiome data and enhance scientific cooperations.
Siqin Li (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
PhD Candidate
Open science and FAIR data is the future. As an early career scientist, I want to be part of a collaborative, diverse and empowered microbiome research community. I became an NMDC champion to help foster and promote this culture in microbiome science.
Sneha Couvillion (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Staff Scientist
I am proud to be a National Microbiome Data Collaborative Champion who believes in the importance of cooperation and quality control metadata. Passionate about plants and microbiota; pleased to be able to contribute to and share FAIR data management methodologies through my research and science communication.
Stephanie Kate (California State University East Bay)
Research Affiliate
I am honored to be part of the FAIR data initiative. The mission of open-science helps ensure research is high quality and accessible to all. As a budding microbiome researcher I am excited to collaborate with other likeminded scientists. I am looking forward to both learning from and contributing to NMDC!
Sydney Chen (Michigan State University)
PhD Student
After having had the chance to be a member of the NMDC Ambassador cohort in 2023, I joined the Champions because I share NMDC's commitment to making science more OPEN and FAIR, leveraging our knowledge of microbiomes to generate new studies and knowledge.
Thomas Pitot (LBNL affiliate / Université Laval)
PhD Student
I became an NMDC Champion because as microbiome science shifts from data generation to interpretation, FAIR data is critical to enable integration of global datasets.
Ulas Karaoz (Berkeley Lab)
Staff Scientist
I want to become an NMDC champion to contribute towards the generation of a centralized and an easily accessible repository for metagenomic and multi-omics datasets that would open new avenues of exploratory biological research.
Venkat Subramanian (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
Sr. Research Scientist
Winston Anthony (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Postdoctoral Fellow
I would like to contribute to microbiome data analysis and data accessibility. I'll work on promoting easy and reproducible microbiome analysis workflows for researchers with/without computational experience and working toward data standardization.
Xinpeng Zhang (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
PhD Student
I want to improve the scientific findings, reproducibility, and collaborative efforts among peers. I also want to help create community and to learn.
Yigal Achmon (Guangdong Israel Institute of Technology)
Assistant Professor
I see from my own work the importance of benchmarking diverse approaches and making sure data obtained from different studies are standardized for comparison. I want to work with scientists of the same interests to help promote the production and documentation of high quality data.
Ying Zhang (University of Rhode Island)
Associate Professor
I am a firm believer in translating the microbiome data in a biologically meaningful manner. A pillar of a good science research is reproducibility. Accomplishing reproducible science requires integrity and transparency in methods used to generate the data, as well as establishing a medium (or media) that makes the data accessible. It is my privilege to be granted an opportunity to contribute to this cause.
Young Song (Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL))
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
What do Champions do?
NMDC Champions are important contributors to the development of the NMDC, and are among the first to provide feedback on core activities, which include:
| NMDC Activity | Details |
| Usability testing | Usability testing to improve the UI and feature development of the NMDC Data Portal, NMDC EDGE, and the NMDC Submission Portal |
| Engagement activities | Consult on, demo, and preview new engagement programs and activities |
| Workflows | Beta-test new NMDC bioinformatic workflows before public release |
| Training & documentation | Provide critical feedback on NMDC training and documentation |
| Data management | Contribute to improving data management plan best practices |
Champions are expected to:
- Spend 10-12 hours per year on NMDC activities
- Promote and share NMDC content and opportunities via email and social media
- Share your experiences on data curation, data management, or working with the NMDC – in person, at events, or via the NMDC web platforms
- Advocate for the importance of FAIR microbiome data and spread the NMDC mission
Benefits of being a NMDC Champion
Opportunities
Build relationships with others who are passionate about FAIR microbiome data
Meet scientific experts from the NMDC Scientific Advisory Board and partner organizations
Join the NMDC in promoting FAIR microbiome data (e.g. congressional briefings, conference panel sessions and talks)
Support
Discuss in-depth updates with NMDC team members in dedicated Champions program meetings
Receive an on-boarding handbook with NMDC resources upon acceptance into the program
Recognition
Be acknowledged as an NMDC Champion on the NMDC website
Receive recognition for contributions to core NMDC activities
Have your research promoted through the NMDC communication channels
How are the Champions and Ambassadors programs different?
The NMDC launched the 2021 Ambassadors program to provide training and support for early career researchers who are motivated to engage with their respective research communities to lower barriers to adoption of metadata standards. Ambassadors are required to meet additional expectations in order to carry out targeted activities in collaboration with the NMDC. The programs differ in the following ways:
| Champions Program | Ambassadors Program |
| A rolling application review process
Remain a Champion while expectations are met Minimum of 10-12 hours per year dedicated to NMDC activities No required training sessions Open to individuals at any career stage or location Opportunities to contribute are offered on an ad-hoc basis depending on interests of the Champion and needs of the NMDC team |
Concrete application deadlines
Cohort based with a 1-year program duration Minimum of 24-36 hours per year dedicated to NMDC 6 required training sessions Limited to early career researchers based in the US Ambassadors spearhead a year-long project with specific NMDC objectives targeting their communities |
Learn more about the NMDC Ambassadors program. Still have questions? Contact us.
Thank you for your interest
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