Key Contributors Update 17 August 2018

This update is sent weekly on Friday afternoon and goes to ELIXIR key stakeholders. It contains requests for actions regarding operations and developments within ELIXIR. Contact joana.wingender@elixir-europe.org for any questions.

An ELIXIR HoNs shared folder including meeting materials from HoN meetings, reference documents, slides & graphics archive can be found on google drive.

For action

New

The ELIXIR Federated Human Data Community has been preparing a Strategic Implementation Study for 2019-21. The vision is to create a federated ecosystem of interoperable services that enables population scale genomic and biomolecular data to be accessible across international borders accelerating research and improving the health of individuals resident across Europe. The plans align with the discussions we have had around the recent declaration about creating access to a million European genomes and builds on the response to the survey we send out before summer. We would like to arrange a teleconference for all Nodes that are interested in participating in this project.

We therefore invite you, or a nominated delegate, to complete this Doodle Poll by Fri, 31 August. We expect one reply per Node. If your Node does not plan to participate in the Federated Human Data project, there is no need to reply.

Please direct any questions to our ELIXIR Human Data Coordinator, Gary Saunders (gary.saunders@elixir-europe.org).

For action

Ongoing

Final Reminder! ELIXIR has created a draft document of our International Strategy, which is to be launched at the International Conference for Research Infrastructures (ICRI), held from 12-14 September 2018.

The Strategy is a live document, released on an annual basis. The main alterations to the 2017 version include:

(1) The restructuring of the Strategy around thematic areas for the benefit of readers who are not familiar with ELIXIR;

(2) The inclusion of a section on implementation actions;

We would like to invite you to provide comments, as well as input on omissions and inaccuracies that may be present in the document by Thu, 23 August.

If you have any questions, please contact Corinne Martin (corinne.martin@elixir-europe.org)

For information

New

We are happy to announce that on 13 August the European Commission announced that the EOSC-Life Horizon 2020 proposal was positively evaluated and thus the Grant Agreement preparation stage will now begin. ELIXIR is coordinating this Cluster project, which brings together all 13 ESFRI Biomedical Research Infrastructures.

ELIXIR will have a booth at the ECCB 2018 Conference, taking place from 8-12 September in Athens, Greece. ELIXIR Nodes are invited to bring flyers which can be displayed at the ELIXIR booth to present their activities. You can either bring your materials directly to the booth, or post them to the Hub. If you have any questions, please contact our Events Officer, Melissa Balzano (melissa.balzano@elixir-europe.org).

The second ELIXIR GDPR workshop will be held in Brussels on Fri, 10 December 2018. This workshop aims to discuss the challenges of GDPR for the ELIXIR Nodes. Based on the example of a few use cases, the needs for tools and solutions will be identified. As an outcome, a roadmap will be defined and a corresponding working group created to pursue the implementation of this roadmap.

This event targets the Technical Coordinators in the ELIXIR Nodes and, where applicable, the data protection experts of the Node. If you wish to participate, please register for the workshop via Eventbrite until the end of October. The agenda for can be found on Google Drive. Any persons wishing to present at the event, or for general questions, please contact ELIXIR Human Data Coordinator, Gary Saunders (gary.saunders@elixir-europe.org) at the Hub.

For information

Ongoing

On 3 August the European Commission announced that both the EJP RD and EU-STANDS4PM Horizon 2020 proposals were approved and thus the Grant Agreement preparation stage will now begin. ELIXIR will participate in both projects.

Key dates and meetings

Heads of Nodes meeting @ ECCB 2018

  • 13 September 2018, Athens, Greece

ELIXIR Board meeting

  • 12-13 November 2018, Ljubljana, Slovenia

ELIXIR 5th Anniversary event

  • 11 December 2018, Brussels, Belgium

Heads of Nodes meeting

  • 12 December 2018, Brussels, Belgium