ELIXIR has released its 2016 Annual Report highlighting the major achievements of 2016 and illustrating the growth and maturity of ELIXIR's services. It also shows progress made towards the priorities of the current ELIXIR Scientific Programme 2014-2018 and sets the scene for the remainder of the programing cycle.
ELIXIR continues to expand
The number of activities taking place in ELIXIR Nodes and across ELIXIR Platforms and Use Cases increased significantly. In 2016, ELIXIR started four new Implementation studies and successfully concluded five others, published nine research papers in its F1000R channel, and increased the content of three ELIXIR registries (TeSS for training, bio.tools for bioinformatics tools and Biosharing for data policies). With five new members joining in 2016, ELIXIR also became the largest of all ESFRI research infrastructures in terms of direct membership by countries.
This rapid expansion is a clear indication of ELIXIR’s success, and confirms the widespread recognition of bioinformatics and data exploitation as a driving force in the life sciences.
ELIXIR Core Data Resources
Of strategical importance was the work towards establishing a set of Core Data Resources. In 2016 ELIXIR published a paper to define the criteria and process for defining and selecting these resources and initiated the process for their selection. These Core Data Resources will drive ELIXIR’s sustainability strategy, and serve as a basis for policy-level discussions with funders internationally.
Looking ahead
In 2017 and throughout the second half of the programming cycle, ELIXIR will further consolidate its portfolio of services and continue to serve the research community in exploration and exploitation of open biological data.
ELIXIR Annual Report 2016: download | read online