The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics fosters excellence in data science to support progress in biological research and health.

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an academic not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to lead and coordinate the field of bioinformatics in Switzerland. Its data science experts join forces to advance biological and medical research and enhance health.

SIB (i) provides the national and international life science community with a state-of-the-art bioinformatics infrastructure, including services, resources, expertise; and (ii) federates world-class researchers and delivers training in bioinformatics.

It includes some 65 research and service groups including some 800 scientists in the fields of genomics, proteomics, phylogeny, systems biology, structural biology, and personalized health.

SIB in figures (1 Jan. 2017):

• 19 institutional members spread across Switzerland
• 12 core facilities
• More than 150 resources accessible through the SIB portal ExPASy
• 240 peer-reviewed articles published in 2016
• 110 teaching days by over 100 experts to about 1,350 trainees in a year

SIB at ELIXIR

SIB is the largest national node within the ELIXIR consortium. As a provider of various renowned bioinformatics resources, expertise and teaching activities to the international life science community, SIB interacts with ELIXIR at several levels:

• SIB co-led the development of the governance and processes supporting the identification and evaluation of ELIXIR Core Data Resources (Durinx C et al., F1000Research 2016, 5:2422)
• SIB co-leads the ELIXIR Data and Training Platforms and is involved in several other work streams, such as the benchmarking of software tools
• After chairing the ELIXIR Board 2015-16, Torsten Schwede, Director of the SIB Personalized Health Informatics group and member of the SIB Board of Directors, has handed over the chairman position to Prof. Rein Aasland from Norway.