ELIXIR’s performance has been commended in a monitoring exercise associated with its ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) landmark status.
ESFRI landmark status is conferred on reference research infrastructures considered pillars in the European Research Area landscape who offer services to academic research and support innovation. The ESFRI monitoring process was recommended by the EU’s Competitiveness Council to ensure landmark status quality. The inaugural round of monitoring was carried out in the first half of 2023 and is foreseen to be repeated every five years.
ELIXIR’s monitoring submission, totaling over 50 pages with 19 supporting documents, was very well received by the expert panel. They noted a clear demonstration of scientific excellence, pan-European relevance, global reach and high socio-economic impact enabled through open access to services. ELIXIR was also praised for strong leadership and the capacity for adapting to and developing new scientific trends.
The monitoring report identified particular highlights which included: ELIXIR Core Data Resources (based on impressive usage information), ELIXIR’s Communities and Focus Groups (as structures to cater for the needs of users), Life Science Login (especially its adoption beyond ELIXIR) and the ELIXIR training programme (which was described as ‘excellent’).
The monitoring panel also provided ELIXIR with a number of recommendations:
- Develop a strategy to monitor service quality
- Deepen understanding of service users and impact derived from service usage
- Prioritise service interface user-friendliness
- Build links with industry service users in pre-competitive projects
- Foster synergies with other large European research infrastructures
ELIXIR is grateful for the opportunity to participate in the exercise, and would like to thank the ELIXIR Nodes for their input, in particular ELIXIR Belgium who kindly provided a national-level perspective during the hearing.
Find out more
- ESFRI monitoring report (first group of monitored research infrastructures)