The update to ELIXIR Heads of Nodes is sent weekly on Friday afternoon. Training and Technical Coordinators are also copied in. Contact nicola.kay@elixir-europe.org for any questions.
Important updates
Germany joins ELIXIR
Germany has become the latest Member of ELIXIR, following the ratification of the ECA by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). A news release can be found on the ELIXIR website.
Support for the ELIXIR Project Management Unit
We are very happy to announce that the ELIXIR PMU has recently gained valuable support and increase in capacity with a new team member: Elenko Anastasov will support the team and ELIXIR colleagues with the financial reporting and budgeting side of externally funded projects.
EXCELERATE interim report
As requested at the June HoN retreat, we will conduct an interim report on the involvement of project partners in different EXCELERATE tasks, including resources used for these in the first 12 months of the project (September 2015 until and including August 2016). This report, which is prepared as a Google form, is high-level and should be straightforward for partners to complete. We would appreciate your help as HoNs in making sure all partners provide the information requested.
The aim of this interim report is to gain a preliminary, snapshot overview of resource usage (or underusage) across the EXCELERATE project, which is essential information for effective resource management across this very large and diverse consortium. It will be sent on Monday to the WP leaders and the administrative and project management personnel at each project beneficiary, with HoNs in copy. If you know that any information at the organisations within your Node has changed, please let us know.
The information from the report will also help us to chase down still missing information from the baseline overview of resources per task, which will provide the basis against which to compare data from the first periodic report next spring.
If you have any questions about this, please contact project management at grants@elixir-europe.org.
Registration for ELIXIR HoNs meeting at the ECCB
A reminder to register for the ELIXIR HoNs meeting at the ECCB by next Wednesday 24 August, if you have not already done so.
The agenda for the meeting can be found here.
The option to join the meeting via teleconference will be available for those not able to attend in person. If you would like to join the meeting via TC please contact nicola.kay@elixir-europe.org to confirm your participation.
Action items
Register for the ELIXIR HoNs meeting at the ECCB by next Wednesday 24th August, if you have not already done so.
Send any requests for items for inclusion in the Second EXCELERATE Grant Agreement amendment to Stephanie Suhr in advance of the meeting.
From last week's update:
Send any comments on the International Consortium for Personalised Medicine (IC PerMed) strategy roadmap document and completed questionnaire to Serena Scollen by Wednesday 24 August.
Send any comments on the draft ELIXIR International Policy to andrew.smith@elixir-europe.org by Friday 26 August.
For your information
ELIXIR Ethics policy
The deadline for feedback on the ELIXIR Ethics Policy draft has now passed, thank you to everyone who has provided feedback. The comments received were quite minimal and easily resolved; the content of the policy has not changed. We now consider it ready to be submitted as an EXCELERATE deliverable to fulfill the first ethics requirement (the second being the quality management strategy). The Ethics Policy deliverable is a "confidential" deliverable, i.e. it will only be available to the consortium and the Commission.
If any further adjustments are needed before the policy can be submitted to the ELIXIR Board for approval at its next meeting in November, please do let us know as soon as possible.
Key dates and meetings
Heads of Node meeting
- 4 September, 16-19:00, The Hague, Netherlands (during the ECCB 2016)
Heads of Node teleconference
- 8 December 2016, 9-12.00 UK time
ELIXIR All Hands meeting
- 21-23 March 2017, Rome, Italy (preceded by ELIXIR SAB meeting, 20 March 2017)
ELIXIR-EXCELERATE midterm review
- 10 May 2017, Brussels, Belgium. Time and agenda TBC.
ELIXIR Policy event:
- 11 May 2017, Brussels, Belgium, Time and agenda TBC