ELIXIR has funded three projects addressing the Node and people development ambitions of its Scientific Programme for 2024 to 2028. These complement eight projects, launched in January, focussing on the Programme’s scientific and technical goals.
The projects were launched on 1 July 2024 and run until the end of 2026. Called ‘Commissioned Services’, they fund activities which connect experts in ELIXIR Nodes and support the long-term strategy of ELIXIR.
The Node Support project involves 17 Nodes, with 5 additional Nodes receiving funding to attend meetings. The project has funding of €651,000 and is co-led by Lucy Poveda (ELIXIR Switzerland) and David Dolan (ELIXIR Norway). It aims to:
- Support ELIXIR’s 23 Nodes to operate a federated research infrastructure by:
- Understanding Node strengths and development areas
- Sharing good practices with Nodes and other research infrastructures
- Documenting the impact of EU projects
- Boost Node financial sustainability by creating a knowledge base to support the preparation of funding applications and responses to requests for information.
- Improve alignment with national open science plans and national research policies by:
- Building a dashboard of open science and data management policies referencing ELIXIR
- Providing training on outreach to national funders and policy makers
- Aligning ELIXIR’s RDM Community, EOSC Focus Group and RDA Focus Group with national open science policies
- Communicate ELIXIR’s stories of success in open science
- Increase industry engagement at the Node level and establish a common support strategy across ELIXIR by:
- Mapping ELIXIR services and activities with industrial applications
- Support Node industry engagement through provision of dissemination materials and shared communication plans
- Develop Node use cases to highlight successful industry engagement and share good practices
There are two projects which support people development in ELIXIR: PeoplePulse and Train-the-Trainer.
The PeoplePulse project has funding of €365,000, it involves 11 ELIXIR Nodes and is co-led by Irena Maus (ELIXIR Germany) and Mariana De Freitas (ELIXIR Portugal). The project will drive personal and professional growth within ELIXIR and aims to:
- Improve onboarding in ELIXIR through a pilot of onboarding webinars.
- Increase the visibility of the diverse contributions of ELIXIR people by mapping contributions, create short videos featuring a range of individuals and provide recommendations to further improve public recognition of contributions.
- Understand Node roles such as Training, Technical and Node Coordinator, develop role profiles and identify training needs, and maintain a directory of individuals within each Node.
- Update and expand the ELIXIR Training in Management (ELITMa):
- Update and re-run the two pilot modules (Governance and Organisational Behaviour and Node Data Management Strategy)
- Design two new modules (Communications and Carbon Footprint) and run the Communications module.
- Run training on impact, organising a series of knowledge exchange events, undertake four Node case studies on impact and integrate the results into the ELIXIR Impact Toolkit.
The Train-the-Trainer project is co-led by Jessica Lindvall (ELIXIR Sweden) and Patricia Palagi (ELIXIR Switzerland) and involves nine ELIXIR Nodes. The project has funding of €370,000 to achieve its aims:
- Establish and implement a strategy to recognise the work of the instructors, grow the ELIXIR-GOBLET Train-the-Trainer instructor's community, and create a plan for onboarding to the community.
- Create and deliver five new training modules to support the ELIXIR community that are open, FAIR and ready to use. The five modules are:
- Practical application of training in a digital environment - making use of the EeLP, ELIXIR-SI's learning management system
- Practical use of the ELIXIR training lesson template
- Training strategies for in person vs online teaching
- Developing effective learning paths
- Communication skills for trainers, including learning about posture, body language, pace and interaction with the trainees
- Design, develop and roll out a Train-the-Trainer mentorship programme, which will build capacity of Train-the-Trainer instructors within ELIXIR Nodes.
The three internal projects build on Node capacity-building and people development activities of the EU-funded ELIXIR-STEERS project. The overlap between the leadership team of ELIXIR-STEERS and the internal projects will ensure that the activities are synergistic whilst remaining distinct.
Together, the Node Support, PeoplePulse and Train-the-Trainer projects aim to support the whole spectrum of ELIXIR Nodes, from the newly formed to the most mature. The initiatives provide development opportunities and training for the diverse range of individuals within ELIXIR, ultimately enhancing the organisation's influence in life science.