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ELIXIR Belgium: Tackling data management

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Life-sciences go through a number of data challenges that force the scientific community to rethink many aspects of data management. To encounter these challenges and to share data amongst European researchers, the ELIXIR initiative was launched. ELIXIR is an intergovernmental organisation that brings together life-science resources from across Europe. It coordinates, integrates and sustains bioinformatics resources across its member states and enables users in academia and industry to access vital services for their research. Belgium recently joined ELIXIR as a full member. The Belgian ELIXIR node is coordinated by the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology.

ELIXIR Belgium lead Frederik Coppens (VIB): “With the launch of ELIXIR Belgium, we aim to inform researchers, policy makers and funders about this research infrastructure and how it can assist them in their research. The Belgian node will focus on sustainable agriculture and human health. The current collaborators in ELIXIR Belgium are VIB, Ghent University, University of Leuven, University of Antwerp, Free University of Brussels, Université Libre de Bruxelles, University of Hasselt and Université de Liège. We are looking forward to collaborate with our partners to establish ELIXIR as a core infrastructure for data in life-sciences in Belgium.”

ELIXIR

ELIXIR is an intergovernmental organization that brings together life science resources from across Europe. These resources include databases, software tools, training materials, cloud storage and supercomputers. The goal of ELIXIR is to coordinate these resources so that they form a single infrastructure. This infrastructure makes it easier for scientists to find and share data, exchange expertise, and agree on best practices. Ultimately, it will help them gain new insights into how living organisms work.

ELIXIR includes 21 member states and over 180 research organizations. It was founded in 2014, and is currently implementing its first five-year scientific program.