Action items
- ELIXIR SAB meeting 9th- 10th December: Heads of Nodes who have submitted reports for review at the ELIXIR SAB meeting next week (or their nominated deputy) are asked to be prepared to give a short (10-15 minute) presentation, with a few slides highlighting the key points from their reports, and excelerate Work Package Co-Chairs to give a short introduction to their Work Package at the meeting. Please send slides for the meeting to nicola.kay@elixir-europe.org (mailto:nicola.kay@elixir-europe.org) in advance of the meeting, where possible, in order that they can be installed on the laptop ready for presentation on the day.
For information
ELIXIR Website
Thank you for your comments on the new ELIXIR website Dev Site, we will look to implement the changes suggested and aim to make an initial public release of the site by the end of next week, with further updates including the development of the intranet, to follow over a number of months, as previously advised.
ELIXIR's INFRADEV-3 application
Thank you for all your input on the draft WP descriptions over the last few weeks. The WP descriptions have now been merged into a single document and sent to the ELIXIR SAB for discussion at their meeting in Hinxton next week.
Agenda and documents for ELIXIR SAB meeting
The agenda and documents for the ELIXIR SAB meeting, to be held at Hinxton next week (9th-10th December), can be found here on google drive:https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4WQQq4hwmbQZXVrTy1iUWJGc2c&usp… a number of WPs descriptions are still under development, the draft excelerate proposal document (ELIXIRSAB/2014/9) will be revised to include WP descriptions as we receive them and a final version made available shortly before the meeting.Heads of Nodes are invited to attend the meeting by open invitation.Heads of Nodes who have submitted reports for review at the meeting (or their nominated deputy) are asked to be prepared to give a short (10-15 minute) presentation, with a few slides highlighting the key points from their reports, and excelerate Work Package Co-Chairs to give a short introduction to their Work Package at the meeting.If you have slides we would appreciate it if you could please try to send them to us before the meeting in order that we can have them installed on the laptop ready for presentation on the day.
Revised Collaboration Agreement template and (annex 4) warranty document
As per the Email from ELIXIR Legal Adviser, Vera Herkommer dated 4th December, Heads of Nodes are reminded of the existence of the so called 'Warranty Document'.Annex 4 of Collaboration Agreement: single or distributed Node?- If your Node involves a single legal entity that has its own legal personality: please add a copy of your statutes as Annex 4.
If your Node is a distributed Node (based on a Consortium agreement appointing a Lead Institute (acting in its own name) or a Representing Institute (acting in its own name and in the name of every single Consortium Partner), see also first and second alternative in the Template), please use the newly developed 'Warranty Document'. For distributed Nodes it is not necessary any longer to attach the underlying Node agreement (e.g. Node Consortium Agreement) since the Warranty Document includes all information that is important to the ELIXIR Hub. In case the HoN is not going to be employed by either the Lead or a Representing Institute, please contact Vera to discuss implementation.Rational behind establishing a 'Warranty document'For the purposes of the ELIXIR Collaboration Agreement, it is important that the Node's legal framework allows for the implementation of ELIXIR Board decisions in all parts of a distributed ELIXIR Node. In order to facilitate the process, and recognising that underlying Node agreements undertake very different approaches, implement different legal structures and are usually concluded in local language(s), we have developed the Warranty Document.Contents of the 'Warranty document'The Warranty document is signed by the Lead or Representing Institute.
The main terms of the warranty include as follows:
- Legal entity of the distributed Node,
- Confirmation of an appropriate governance structure through which ELIXIR Board and SAB decisions can be implemented and monitored,
- Warranty of the authority of the lead institute or other representing entity to enforce quality assurance mechanisms in all institutes forming part of the distributed ELIXIR Nodes.
- Warranty of the Head of Node's authority to act on behalf of all institutes forming part of the distributed ELIXIR Node.
Hence the Warranty document avoids translation and interpretation of national consortium agreements or other agreements, this is replaced by an assertion from the Node that the national structures allows implementation of the ECA and CA requirements.The warranty document templates and consolidated Collaboration Agreement template, which includes changes agreed at the last ELIXIR Board meeting as well as minor editorial changes that proved useful throughout negotiations with the first Node candidate can be found in the Heads of Nodes area (https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1geNL4HLjUUNVJ0Y3BEOWp4ZW8&usp…) in google drive.
ELIXIR Innovation and SME forum, Denmark (24-25 November 2014)
The slides presented at the first ELIXIR Innovation and SME forum event that took place in Denmark last week with over 50 attendees can now be found here on the ELIXIR website:www.elixir-europe.org/news/elixir-holds-first-innovation-and-sme-forum-… second ELIXIR Innovation and SME Forum event is now planned to take place in Wageningen on 18th-19th March 2015 hosted by ELIXIR Netherlands. The focus will be on plant and livestock bioinformatics resources. Whilst primarily focused on a local target audience, these events are open to companies from any country. The programme will be developed over the coming months and further details will follow. In the meantime, please circulate this information to any companies you think might be interested.
ELIXIR cited in RDA report
ELIXIR is one of the data sharing projects cited on page 14 of the Research Data Alliance 'Data Harvest Report' which examines how sharing research data can yield knowledge, jobs and growth. The report will be presented to the EC and the audience at the in Rome next week.The report (http://europe.rd-alliance.org/documents/publications-reports/data-harve…) and full press release (https://www.rd-alliance.org/data-harvest-report-sharing-data-knowledge-…) can be found on the RDA website (https://rd-alliance.org/) .
NIH Frameworks for Community-based Standards Efforts Workshop Report Released
The report generated as a result of the NIH BD2K workshop "Frameworks for Community-based Standards Efforts", held last year has been released.The workshop aimed at gaining a clearer understanding of the community-based data and metadata standards efforts, in particular, and how NIH might best relate to them. In this report the authors, who are the lead organizers and co-chairs, elaborate on the findings and indicate future directions.In conjunction with related efforts already under way at NIH, including the development of a Data Discovery Index Consortium (bioCADDIE: http://biocaddie.org), the final document will assist the NIH Office of the Associate Director (ADDS) to help move forward the NIH BD2K vision on how data, metadata and other digital research products can interact and work with each other.Users, software developers and publishers are invited to review the report and post comments by January 20, 2015.The link to the report is: http://www.communitybasedstandards.org
Reminder of Key Meetings/Dates
ELIXIR SAB - Heads of Nodes meeting, Hinxton (9-10 Dec 14)
HoN teleconference (4 Feb 15, 13:00-16:00 UK time)
ELIXIR Nodes workshop, Hinxton (30 - 31 Mar 15)