Skip to content

ELIXIR Releases 2023 Annual Report Highlighting Significant Advances and Strategic Collaborations

Introduction

ELIXIR, has released its Annual Report for 2023, showcasing a year of significant advancements, strategic collaborations, and impactful contributions to the life science field. The report underscores ELIXIR’s commitment to supporting life science research and its integral role in fostering innovation through data sharing and resource integration. Within the report, you can find detailed insights into the activities and achievements of each ELIXIR node, highlighting their contributions to the broader scientific community.

The year 2023 was a milestone for ELIXIR in many ways. ELIXIR concluded its 2019-2023 Scientific Programme and saw the completion of several EU-funded projects, including:

It was also a period of celebration and growth. ELIXIR secured coordination roles in two Horizon Europe projects:

Additionally, seven new internal projects, totalling €1.5 million, were funded, with 19 projects ongoing. A new Scientific Programme for 2024-2028 was announced. In 2023, ELIXIR marked its tenth anniversary, celebrating a decade of unifying national bioinformatics efforts and managing major EU projects. At the beginning of December, Niklas Blomberg stepped down as Director, with Andy Smith serving as Interim Director. Tim Hubbard has been appointed the new Director, starting in March 2024. Ferran Sanz (Chair of ELIXIR Board 2019-2023) captured the journey in his foreword: “Over these ten years, ELIXIR has evolved from a budding initiative to a cornerstone of the European life science and open data landscape.”

Core Data Resources

ELIXIR Core Data Resources is a set of European data resources crucial to the life science community and the long-term preservation of biological data. The Data Platform held a successful selection round for new ELIXIR Core Data Resources and Deposition Databases. This led to the accreditation of ten new Core Data Resources, bringing the total to 32. Four new ELIXIR Deposition Databases were also accredited, bringing the total to 16. Core Data Resources saw significant updates in their technical infrastructure. These included implementing advanced data storage solutions, enhanced security measures, and new data management tools. These upgrades have improved the efficiency and reliability of data access and retrieval.

Collaborative Projects and Partnerships

ELIXIR fostered collaborations with national and international partners, including major European research infrastructures and Horizon Europe initiatives, to advance its mission of a sustainable data ecosystem for life sciences. The organisation’s involvement in the European Open Science Cloud and its leadership in various Horizon Europe projects have been instrumental in advancing open science and data sharing across Europe. Additionally, the essential collaboration with the FAIRplus project improved the FAIRness (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) of life science data, ensuring data is available and usable by researchers worldwide.

Support for Training and Capacity Building

In addition, ELIXIR has prioritised training and capacity building throughout 2023. The organisation has conducted over 70 training events and workshops, equipping researchers with the skills and knowledge to use ELIXIR’s resources effectively. These programs covered a wide range of topics, from basic bioinformatics to advanced data analysis techniques, and have reached a broad audience, from early-career researchers to seasoned professionals, fostering a culture of continuous learning and development.

ELIXIR Estonia node

  • Estonian ELIXIR Recommended Interoperability Resource, g:Profiler, served over 16 million queries in 2023.
  • Published an updated article in Nucleic Acids Research on g:Profiler.
  • Ran 18 courses from basic coding to advanced data management topics for 305 participants from 31 organisations.
  • Co-organised the Bioinformatics Summer School with EMBL-EBI.
  • Participated in the successful bid for the EU-funded project ELIXIR-STEERS.
  • Launched an update for the eQTL Catalogue Browser.
  • Collaborated with the Wellcome Sanger Institute to launch new services for genome editing tools: MinsePie, ForeCasT-Repair and ForeCasT-BE.
  • Continued developing the EDAMmap service to facilitate creating tool annotations for the bio.tools service.
  • Co-led the ELIXIR Training eSupport System (TeSS) and participated in the new TeSS frontend development.
  • Appointed Kairi Koort from Tallinn University to serve as Deputy Head of Node.

Looking Ahead: Strategic Vision and Future Goals

As ELIXIR looks to the future, it remains committed to its vision of enabling sustainable, interoperable life science data infrastructure. The 2023 Annual Report outlines key goals for the coming years, including expanding the Core Data Resources and fostering greater collaboration across the life sciences community. The full ELIXIR Annual Report 2023 is available on the ELIXIR website for more details.

This text was generated with the help of AI (Chat GPT 4.0, developed by OpenAI).