User:GJSissons/sandbox/nf-core

Nf-core is a not-for-profit community effort dedicated to collecting a curated set of bioinformatics pipelines. In bioinformatics, a pipeline refers to a predefined sequence of algorithmic steps normally used to process next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. Nf-core pipelines are written using Nextflow, an open-source language for building and managing pipelines. Pipelines developed by nf-core contributors are freely available under an MIT license.

Nf-core has some similarities to other central pipeline repositories in bioinformatics such as qPortal, Truwl, and the Galaxy Toolshed. A focus of the nf-core project is on ensuring that pipelines are reproducible and portable across different hardware, operating systems, and software versions.

History
The nf-core effort grew out of work led by Phil Ewels, head of development for NGI Stockholm (National Genomics Infrastructure), part of SciLifeLab Sweden. NGI initially developed analysis pipelines for it own purposes using a set of internal guidelines to ensure that pipelines were FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). A community of like-minded researchers joined this effort from other research institutions including the Quantitative Biology Center (QBiC) at the University of Tübingen, the A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore, the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona and the Francis Crick Institute in London. This group's work was published in Nature Biotechnology in February of 2020. As the number of users and contributors to the effort grew, all relevant pipelines were moved to the new nf-core GitHub organization to facilitate collaboration.

Project Supporters
As of June, 2022 there were 440+ active contributors to the nf-core GitHub repositories and 67 available pipelines. According to nf-core organizers, the vast majority of development is done on a volunteer basis. nf-core have also received financial support from third-parties. Among these are:


 * The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative through their Essential Open Source Software for Science (EOSS) grants. Nextflow and nf-core have receive three separate EOSS grants:
 * EOSS - second round
 * EOSS - fourth round
 * EOSS - Diversity & Inclusion
 * Amazon Web Services (AWS) who provide usage credits to run full-sized nf-core datasets and support benchmarks with each Nextflow release.