ELIXIR has today presented the update of its International Strategy. The document describes the current international (i.e. beyond Europe) activities of ELIXIR, setting out the key partners for global collaboration in bioinformatics service provision.
For the first time, ELIXIR’s activities are articulated around UN Sustainable Development Goals. Research infrastructures play a critical role in supporting bioinformatics applications in the fields of health (personalised medicine), food security (e.g. aquaculture) and the environment (e.g. pollution), which have significant societal and economic benefits.
Following a review of the current ELIXIR activities, the new version of the ELIXIR International Strategy presents updated objectives in engaging and working with international partners. The four objectives of the ELIXIR International Strategy are:
- Scale-up the international user base of ELIXIR’s Services,
- Improve bioinformatics services and promote global standards,
- Expand Membership in ELIXIR beyond Europe, and
- Ensure that ELIXIR is recognised as an infrastructure of global relevance, and a partner of choice by intergovernmental organisations.
The Strategy also defines a concrete set of actions to achieve the objectives. These actions will be regularly reviewed and assessed based on the progress toward the objectives.
Read the ELIXIR International Strategy in full (pdf).
ELIXIR on the global stage
Since its creation in 2014, ELIXIR has established itself as a key global player in bioinformatics collaboration worldwide. To shape the discussion in global bioinformatics service provision in global scale, ELIXIR has established a number of collaborations with initiatives, projects and partner organisations across the world. Highlights and achievements to date include:
- The status of ELIXIR as a “Global Research Infrastructure” was recognised by the G7’s Group of Senior Officials, firstly in 2015, and then confirmed in 2017.
- ELIXIR has continued to be a visible partner of choice in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) activities related to Research Infrastructure Policy, notably sustainability and socio-economic impact.
- In November 2017, ELIXIR signed a Collaboration Strategy with the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), an international initiative seeking to enable responsible sharing of genomic data. ELIXIR and GA4GH work together on the Beacon technology to enable discovery of genomics datasets.
- In August 2018, ELIXIR and the Software and Data Carpentries (The Carpentries) signed an agreement to extend their existing collaboration, with funding from the EU EXCELERATE grant. The Carpentries is a global community that aims to teach foundational coding and data science skills to researchers worldwide. As part of this collaboration, ELIXIR Nodes and the Carpentries will hold a number of training workshops in ELIXIR Nodes.