Governance

The ELIXIR Governance structure is defined in the ELIXIR Consortium Agreement.

  • ELIXIR Board: the highest decision-making body in ELIXIR. 
  • Scientific Advisory Board (SAB): advises the Board on ELIXIR's scientific strategy and reviews ELIXIR Node applications.
  • Industry Advisory Committee: gives advice and guidance on industry needs.
  • Director: responsible to the ELIXIR Board for implementing ELIXIR's scientific programme. 
  • Heads of Nodes Committee: consists of the heads of the ELIXIR national infrastructures (Nodes). The Committee advises the ELIXIR Director to develop ELIXIR’s scientific and technical strategy, including its programme.
Chart showing that the main ELIXIR governing group is the ELIXIR Board. This is advised by the Scientific Advsory Board (SAB) and the Industry Advisory Board.

Operational structure

  • Platforms: ELIXIR has five operational platforms: Data, Tools, Compute, Interoperability and Training. Each platform is led by a leadership team agreed by the Heads of Nodes Committee. The Platform membership consists of task leads, technical staff and a Platform Coordinator. Each Platform Coordinator provides support to the Platform leaders and ensures that the Platform's activities are aligned to its goals.
  • Communities: ELIXIR has a number of Communities whose aim is to drive the development of the ELIXIR infrastructure from different user perspectives. These include a group of Human Data Communities. Four Communities were initiated during the ELIXIR-EXCELERATE project with others being added continuously to broaden ELIXIR's user base.
     
  • Coordinator groups
    • The Technical Coordinators Group (TeCG) is comprised of technical representatives from each ELIXIR Node. The group identifies gaps and promotes connections among Nodes and Platforms. It is the responsibility of the TeCG to explore technical opportunities and issues aiming to provide advice and recommendations. The TeCG is connected with Platforms through Node technical representatives actively involved in the implementation of Platforms.
    • The Training Coordinators Group (TrCG) is composed of training representatives of each of the ELIXIR Nodes. TrCG meets regularly to share information, expertise and to coordinate and lead the implementation of the ELIXIR training strategy across Europe.
    • The Node Coordinators Group is composed of representatives from ELIXIR Nodes. The purpose of the group is to share information and best practise in the operations of the ELIXIR Node. In many ELIXIR Nodes, the Node Coordinator is a key operational position funded by national funding.

       

    Handbook of Operations

    The Handbook of Operations provides information on the governance structure of ELIXIR, as well as its procedures and policies.

    The legal framework of ELIXIR is based on the ELIXIR Consortium Agreement (ECA), which has been concluded among the Member States and EMBL and officially entered into force on 12 January 2014.

    Based on the ECA, EMBL carries out activities on behalf of ELIXIR that require EMBL’s legal personality. This allows ELIXIR to take advantage of EMBL’s privileges and immunities. EMBL is an international treaty organisation with 23 Member States and two associate Member States. You can find out more about ELIXIR's legal and governance model on the Governance FAQs page.

    The ELIXIR Collaboration Agreement is the legal document that ties together the ELIXIR Hub and the national Node. See also How countries join and establish a Node.