Developments in genomics have already fed into the reality of personalised medicine and faster, more effective treatments for rare diseases. National governments and companies are also making investments in data-driven innovation that would facilitate these prospects.
To help companies access and take advantage of this wealth of data, ELIXIR organised a two-day ELIXIR Innovation and SME Forum on 14-15 November in Paris, France. Hosted by ELIXIR France, the event attracted 75 participants working in large companies, SMEs, academia, Patient Associations and European and French government agencies.
The programme featured some of the open bioinformatics resources that are particularly useful in rare disease research, such as Orphanet and the ELIXIR Rare Diseases Use Case. The event also discussed how companies can integrate open bioinformatics resources (more than 200 resources in some cases) and personalised medicine plans in European countries. Participants learned how to identify opportunities and sources of funding for companies within these plans. Twelve companies presented their business models in flash-talks — with a total of eight nationalities represented in the event.
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About the ELIXIR Innovation and SME Programme
ELIXIR's Innovation and SME programme is a series of specialised events for companies hosted by ELIXIR Nodes. The events provide companies with the opportunity of learning about open bioinformatics resources available through ELIXIR and forge links with the local ELIXIR Nodes representatives running these services. So far, more than 350 representatives from 150 companies have exchanged knowledge with ELIXIR partners across Europe, from small startups to SMEs, to large pharmaceutical companies and IT service providers.
In 2017, four collaborative projects and proposals involving eight different companies (all SMEs) and ELIXIR Nodes have started as a result of the Innovation and SME programme, at both national and European levels
Next stop in Cambridge
Cambridge hosts the next SME event, focused on finding bioinformatics resources in all life science domains. Intended for companies and institutes actively using bio-data, the event includes presentations of ELIXIR’s open data resources and talks by companies with innovative ideas to use them. The registration is now open.