ELIXIR-UK Coordination Office

The ELIXIR-UK Coordination Office, based at the Earlham Institute in Norwich, will provide national coordination for the activities of the UK Node of ELIXIR. ELIXIR is a European project to integrate life sciences data across the continent with the aim of facilitating the linking of data worldwide. Each country involved in ELIXIR has its own Node, the UK's Node being ELIXIR-UK. ELIXIR-UK coordinates a wide range of activities across training in bioinformatics, data integration, and provision of tools and data involving 16 UK Universities and Research Institutes and the Coordination Office will be pivotal in their delivery, cross-connectivity and impact.

The ELIXIR-UK Coordination Office will provide strategic and administrative leadership and support to the UK ELIXIR Node. ELIXIR-UK coordinates a wide range of activities across training in bioinformatics, data integration, and provision of tools and data involving 16 UK Universities and Research Institutes and expects to expand its activities further over time.

Strong participation in ELIXIR is essential to maintain the long-term reputation and international impact of UK bioinformatics and data infrastructure, and to its credibility and equal standing. The ELIXIR-UK node acts as a single entity to partner with other nodes and the hub to jointly develop and run a cohesive EU digital data infrastructure; to roll out the UK's best and to roll in the ELIXIR's member states' best to the benefit of the UK. This will increase the impact of UK bioinformatics globally by giving it influence in decision-making processes during the development of this infrastructure. By engaging sub-communities within the bioinformatics research community, the Office will have a direct positive impact on the UK research community by bringing these communities together and facilitating the building of new collaborations.

The Coordination Office will support ELIXIR in strengthening links across the national life sciences data infrastructure, working together with the UK community and funders, and allowing it to actively facilitate the transfer of technology, data and expertise between different disciplines, from Europe and beyond. These activities will benefit the UK research community who need to make use of large-scale life sciences data (from genomics to environmental scale data) and UK business involved in making use of such data from the health sciences to agricultural companies. It will do this by providing easier access to the essential data and tools needed for them to carry out their research and development.

Training in quantitative science is a priority for all three research councils and by integrating UK and international efforts in this area ELIXIR-UK plays a strategically important role. The BBSRC/MRC review of vulnerable skills identified statistics and quantitative skills as key needs for maintaining the UK's leading position in science with its consequent impact on economic growth. ELIXIR-UK's training activity focusses on five key areas: structural bioinformatics, clinical genomics, applied genomics (relevant to crop plants and farmed animals), core bioinformatics skills (such as statistics, software development, data curation and standards) and metabolomics; strengthening the UK training landscape to provide a deeper pool of skilled individuals in this critical area.