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ELIXIR Research Infrastructure
ELIXIR (the European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information) is a project that will allow life science laboratories across Europe to share and store their research data as part of an organized network. Its goal is to bring together Europe’s Leading laboratories and data centres to help coordinate the collection, quality control and storage of large amounts of biological data produced by life science experiments. ELIXIR will ensure that biological data is integrated into a centralised system where by all facets of the scientific community can access existing research easily.

Mission
ELIXIR's mission is to build a sustainable European infrastructure for biological information, supporting life science research and its translation to medicine and the environment, the bio-industries and society.

The results from biological experiments produce vast amounts of results that are stored as data using computer software. It has been estimated that by 2020, biological data will be generated at up to one million times the current rate, handling and processing this large volume of data presents a challenge that needs to be addressed. European countries have invested heavily in research that produces, analyses and stores biological information. However, the collection, storage, archiving and integration of these large amounts of data present an immense problem that cannot be tackled by one country alone. Therefore, ELIXIR represents the joining of disparate and independent bioscience facilities to create an integrated network to address the complex problem of biological data storage and management.

Ultimately by providing a sustainable and distributed structure for handling data and data retrieval tools, ELIXIR will secure European wide investment in bioinformatics, providing the stability to conduct research in all areas of life science, both in academia and industry.

Organisation and Structure
ELIXIR will be built around existing science resources and forms a hub and node structure. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in the United Kingdom is coordinating ELIXIR and will form the ‘hub’ with other institutions across Europe forming the ‘nodes’.

Participants
15 countries have now signed the memorandum of understanding, which is a non-binding agreement that demonstrates each countries commitment to ELIXIR and the construction of a sustainable infrastructure. In April 2013 the newly appointed Founding Director of Elixir will take up his position in the new ELIXIR hub in Cambridge.

Countries and Scientific Delegates

 * Czech Republic - Dr Jiri Vondrasek
 * Denmark - Prof Søren Brunak
 * Estonia - Prof Jaak Vilo
 * Finland - Dr Tommi Nyrönen
 * Greece - Prof Babis Savakis
 * Italy - Prof Anna Tramontano
 * Israel - Dr Yossi Kalifa
 * Netherlands - Dr Barend Mons and Dr Ruben Kok
 * Norway - Prof Inge Jonassen
 * Portugal - Dr José Pereira Leal
 * Slovenia - Prof Damjana Rozman
 * Sweden - Prof Bengt Persson
 * Spain - Prof Alfonso Valencia
 * Switzerland - Prof Ron Appel
 * United Kingdom - Prof Carole Goble

Funding
By the end of 2012 ELIXIR had completed its five-year preparatory phase funded by the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme as part of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) process. ELIXIR is now entering its implementation phase, with 16 European countries having signed the Memorandum of understanding, leading institutions throughout Europe are coming together to create a robust and sustainable organisation. This transition is punctuated by the appointment of ELIXIR’s Founding Director Dr Niklas Blomberg, who will take up his position at the ELIXIR hub in Cambridge on the 1 May 2013. As well as funding from the EU's Seventh Framework, each member state contributes towards the funding of ELIXIR in proportion to GDP. Some countries have allocated new funds to contribute towards ELIXIR. Existing research and development within the nodes will continue to be funded by regional and international agencies.