The ELIXIR 2014 Annual Report covers the major events and activities in 2014 and outlines ELIXIR's plans for the future. The goals in the first year of operation were to lay solid ground bringing together Europe's life-data resources and start delivering tangible services to the scientific community.
In 2014 the ELIXIR membership expanded from the original six to twelve members: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Israel, Netherlands, Norway and Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and EMBL-EBI. A further six countries (Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain) became ELIXIR Observers and are working towards ratifying the ELIXIR Consortium Agreement.
ELIXIR also set the direction for the scientific, technical and training aspects of its activities: The ELIXIR Scientific Programme, published in summer 2014, sets out the main themes and challenges that ELIXIR partners focus on in the current five-year period (2014-2018).
The potential of ELIXIR and the strategic role of bioinformatics in life-science research was recognised by the European Union which selected ELIXIR as one of the three prioritised research infrastructures in Europe.
Having laid a solid foundation in 2014, the priorities for 2015 and the future remain: Deliver useful services to European life-scientists, lay the foundations for long-term sustainable life-science data and continue to build the ELIXIR community in the member states.
ELIXIR Annual Report 2014: download | read online