ELIXIR Estonia’s December Highlights
December was a month of collaboration and significant achievements for ELIXIR Estonia.
Advancing the DATAREX Project
Our training coordinator, Diana, participated in two important ELIXIR-related meetings as part of the DATAREX project, focusing on improving data stewardship practices and infrastructure:
- DATAREX WP3 Meeting (2-3 December, Luxembourg) – This Data Steward Handbook satellite event focused on refining key data stewardship knowledge. A significant milestone was achieved as a large portion of key content was successfully migrated from Google Docs to GitHub, bringing us one step closer to launching a fully functional and accessible web page.
- DATAREX WP2 Meeting (4-6 December, Luxembourg) – The meeting focused on enhancing FAIR data practices through working groups on metadata guidance, interoperability, TeSS annotations, and DSW support. These efforts help provide researchers with better tools and resources for effective data management.
Celebrating Our Team’s Achievements
December also brought well-deserved recognition for our colleagues, highlighting their hard work and dedication:
- Nurlan won 2nd prize in the National Student Research Competition for his groundbreaking PhD research on molecular QTL catalogues.
- Markus received an Honorable Mention in the medical and health sciences category for his undergraduate thesis, supervised by Villem Pata.
- Uku was named Thinker of the Year at the University of Tartu Computer Science Institute Christmas party.
ELIXIR Estonia Officially Added to Estonia’s Research Infrastructure Roadmap
A significant milestone was reached—ELIXIR Estonia has now been officially included in Estonia’s Research Infrastructure Roadmap 2024! This inclusion shows the importance of high-quality training, valuable services, and expert support for the Estonian research community in Estonia’s national research strategy. Being part of the roadmap strengthens our ability to support researchers with tools and expertise.
On this topic, our Head of Node, Hedi, alongside the data managers Diana and Heleri, represented ELIXIR Estonia at the TeadusEST 2024 science forum on the 12th of December. ETAg organised the event, introducing Estonia’s Research Infrastructure Roadmap 2024 organisations and highlighting the importance of research infrastructures.
Contributing to Cutting-Edge CRISPR Research
ELIXIR Estonia, alongside Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge, Leiden University and BioMedX Institute at Heidelberg, co-authored a comprehensive study, “The interplay of DNA repair context with target sequence predictably biases Cas9-generated mutations”. The research analysed a dataset of 236,000 mutations to develop predictive models for more precise genome editing—an important advancement in gene therapy and synthetic biology.
Explore our tool FORECasT-repair, which helps predict CRISPR-induced mutations. Read the full study
Strengthening Collaborations
Building strong international connections remains a key priority for ELIXIR Estonia. Just before the holidays, our data managers had productive discussions with:
- Latvian Data Manager Daina Kosite, continuing our previous meetings and exchanging insights on data stewardship best practices.
- RDA Senior Science Officer Liise Lehtsalu is discussing future collaborations that could strengthen the European research data management landscape.
These informal yet insightful conversations help lay the groundwork for meaningful partnerships and future projects.
December was an exciting and eventful month for ELIXIR Estonia, and we look forward to an even more productive 2025!
This text was generated with the help of AI (ChatGPT 4.0, developed by OpenAI).