This WP will communicate project activities and achievements to external stakeholders. The WP will engage with funders, industry, other RIs, international collaborations, and scientists and countries outside ELIXIR.
Objectives
O5.1 | Deliver world-class communications and outreach. | Task 5.1 |
O5.2 | Facilitate industry engagement with a particular focus on SMEs. | Task 5.2 |
O5.3 | Engage funders to expand Membership of ELIXIR and increase visibility. | Task 5.3 |
O5.4 | Collaborate with research infrastructures in Europe and internationally. | Task 5.4 |
Tasks
Task 5.1 Delivering world-class communication and outreach activities
This task will communicate project activities and achievements, and highlight how users can benefit from ELIXIR and from the project’s software and workflow activities.
A communication plan will be created to maximise the impact of project outputs. This will include definitions of target audiences and key messages, and will be regularly updated based on indicators used for tracking the communication efforts.
To engage with new users and stakeholders, the project will sponsor and run booths at key scientific conferences, targeting bioinformaticians and other service users, and policymakers (e.g. the European Conference on Computational Biology, the International Conference on RIs (ICRI)). The WP will produce short videos showcasing the impact of ELIXIR. The videos will communicate ELIXIR's importance as a sustainable European RI, and the impact of ELIXIR’s services and resources on scientific research.
Sharing of good practices in communications and dissemination will continue through regular meetings of the ELIXIR Communications Officer network. To strengthen the communication capacity of national Nodes, a Node communication and dissemination strategy toolkit will be created and adopted by partners in WP4.
Leadership: Elaine Harrison (ELIXIR Hub) other ELIXIR Nodes, via the Communications Officers network.
Task 5.2 Facilitate industry engagement with a particular focus on SMEs
A dedicated Industry and Innovation Officer, part-funded through WP5, will ensure that industry has a central point of contact within ELIXIR.
Partners from WP2 and WP3 will engage with industry and industry-related initiatives (e.g. GAIA-109 and national bioregion clusters110) to develop best practices for ELIXIR resources. The best practices will be reported in the quarterly ELIXIR Industry newsletter (reaching 1500 industry stakeholders) and presented at an ELIXIR Bioinformatics Industry Forum.
To help ELIXIR Nodes bring software and workflows closer to the needs of industry users, we will perform an industry mapping exercise followed by a capacity building workshop on value creation and engagement strategies with industry. The workshop will be run in collaboration with external experts who can understand ELIXIR resources' cost-benefits and industrial business development.
ELIXIR will also work on industry-related initiatives, seeking partnerships with European and global biotech congresses e.g. BiotechX and Bio-IT Europe. These activities will equip ELIXIR Nodes with knowledge of the existing ecosystem, and the gaps and opportunities where Nodes can work collaboratively with industry partners. Outcomes will be summarised in a final report showcasing the success stories of ELIXIR in creating an innovative culture in the life sciences.
Leadership: Despoina Sousoni (ELIXIR Hub), Francesca De Leo (CNR), Dan Ben-Avraham (Weizmann Institute of Science), all ELIXIR Nodes (via the Innovation and Industry Group).
Task 5.3 Expand country Membership and outreach to EU funders
This task will support the expansion of ELIXIR, ensuring additional countries join as Members. ELIXIR is one of the largest RIs in terms of Membership by countries, and there is significant interest in joining from other countries.
This task will support interactions between ELIXIR and the scientists and Ministry representatives of those countries through bilateral discussions, virtual outreach events and in-country meetings and community-building events.
A particular focus will be on Croatia, Austria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Latvia, building on prior interactions established through ELIXIR-CONVERGE. Croatia is on track to join ELIXIR; hence University of Zagreb is included as a beneficiary in the project. For Austria, Poland, and Romania - countries where the Ministry is close to applying to become a Member of ELIXIR - a dedicated project budget will be reserved and allocated to that Node upon joining.
Once these countries become Members of ELIXIR, they will engage in WP4 Node Development tasks. Additionally, this task will also enable interactions with EU-level funders and policy-makers that are relevant to ELIXIR overall.
Activities will improve the visibility of ELIXIR to representatives of relevant parts of Horizon Europe, Digital Europe and EU4Health programmes, as well as the Missions and Partnerships. Two separate workshops will be organised in Brussels, one focused on health and human data and one focused on agriculture, food, fisheries, and biodiversity. These will ensure the stakeholders understand ELIXIR and the benefits of ELIXIR's open science services to the research consortia they fund. This will ensure that Horizon Europe-funded projects are aware of how ELIXIR can help them.
Leadership: The ELIXIR Hub will lead this work.
Task 5.4 Collaborate with research infrastructures in Europe and internationally
This task contributes to reinforcing global competitiveness of the European Research Area (ERA). It will initiate new collaborations and reinforce existing ones with sibling RIs both within and beyond Europe. Within Europe, this will take the form of strategic dialogues with other RIs on the ESFRI roadmap, for instance, EuroBioImaging and BBMRI.
Beyond Europe, the task will aim to raise awareness of ELIXIR and what it offers, as well as fostering the uptake of ELIXIR services by bioinformatics communities. This will be done through dissemination and training events that capitalise as much as possible on already planned events and conferences (e.g. annual A2B2C Argentinean bioinformatics conference, ISCB-LA).
We will promote knowledge-exchange through online discussions and coordination activities. These will foster mutual understanding, good international practices and embed collaboration in future Node activities. The task will build on previous and current projects with institutes and RIs in countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Africa.
Leadership: Corinne Martin and Joana Wingender (ELIXIR Hub), Silvio Tosatto and Diana Battistella (University of Padua), Kim Gurwitz (EMBL-EBI), Ana Portugal Melo (biodata.pt), Patricia Palagi (SIB), Bruna Piereck Moura (VIB), Bengt Persson (Uppsala University).