title: NetCapDB: measuring bioinformatics capacity development in Africa.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The National Institutes of Health (USA) has committed 5 years of funding to the Bioinformatics Network of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa initiative. This pan-African network aims to develop capacity for bioinformatics research, in order to provide support to human health genomics research programs ongoing on the continent. Over the 5 years of funding, it is imperative to track changes in bioinformatics capacity at the funded centres and to document how the funding has translated into capacity development during this time frame.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Network capacity database, NetCapDB, is a relational database that captures quantitative metrics for bioinformatics capacity, and tracks the changes in these metrics over time. A graphical user interface allows for straight-forward, browser-based data entry by users across Africa; and for visual and graph-based exploration of captured data. A reporting interface allows for semi-automated generation of standardized reports for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
authors.affiliation: South African National Bioinformatics Institute/Medical Research Council of South Africa Bioinformatics Unit, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. hocine@sanbi.ac.za.
authors.forename: Hocine
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bendou
authors.affiliation: South African National Bioinformatics Institute/Medical Research Council of South Africa Bioinformatics Unit, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. jeanbaka@sanbi.ac.za.
authors.forename: Jean-Baka Domelevo
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Entfellner
authors.affiliation: South African National Bioinformatics Institute/Medical Research Council of South Africa Bioinformatics Unit, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. pvh@sanbi.ac.za.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Heusden
authors.affiliation: South African National Bioinformatics Institute/Medical Research Council of South Africa Bioinformatics Unit, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. junaid@sanbi.ac.za.
authors.forename: Junaid
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gamieldien
authors.affiliation: South African National Bioinformatics Institute/Medical Research Council of South Africa Bioinformatics Unit, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. nicki@sanbi.ac.za.
authors.forename: Nicki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tiffin
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D002202:Capital Financing; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000191:economics* / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D016208:Databases, Factual; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.) / Q000191:economics*; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface