ELIXIR and NIH sign Memorandum of Agreement

ELIXIR has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the medical research agency in the United States of America making and funding discoveries that improve health and save lives.  The agreement, extending until 2028, formalises seven years of collaboration between the parties, and aims to advance life and health science research internationally for the benefit of all. 

The NIH Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS) leads NIH’s efforts to modernise the NIH-funded biomedical data science ecosystem by collaborating with scientific communities to support the use of services, explore and implement standards and promote the sustainable and responsible sharing of well-annotated data.

In particular, the agreement aims to:

• Promote research data management best practices, including outreach in the US and Europe, to jointly disseminate best practices and contribute and develop the Research Data Management Toolkit (RDMkit) and FAIR Cookbook
• Build relationships and exchange technical knowledge
• Strengthen cross-sector international partnerships through common projects with expert community organisations, such as the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), the Research Data Alliance (RDA), Carpentries, and the Galaxy and Bioconductor developer and user communities.

This will be achieved by building on ongoing joint activities:

• Reciprocal attendance at ELIXIR and NIH meetings, such as technical workshops and expert discussions
• Collaboration on  GA4GH Driver Projects  and RDA activities
• Joint sessions at flagship conferences
• Participating in mutual interest groups, such as the ELIXIR Machine Learning Focus Group
• Joint representation on editorial boards, such as the RDMKit and FAIR Cookbook
• Staff exchanges, technical scholar visits and the co-authoring of manuscripts

The agreement adds to ELIXIR’s well-established collaborations with international initiatives, such as the GA4GH and the RDA, and national data infrastructures outside Europe, including the Australian Bioinformatics Commons and H3Africa. 

Ishwar Chandramouliswaran, Lead, FAIR Data & Resources, Office of Data Science Strategy, NIH, said “Building bridges to combine strengths are enablers to accelerate advancements. I look forward to the NIH and ELIXIR teams leveraging this agreement to further our collaborations and develop both technical as well as social solutions to address common challenges”.

Tim Hubbard, ELIXIR Director, said “I am delighted to formalise the close relationship between ELIXIR and NIH through this agreement. We share common principles of open science and will work together to expand dissemination of best practices and technical knowledge. We will continue to collaborate bilaterally and through organisations such as the GA4GH and RDA, and seek opportunities to deepen these relationships.”

Celebrating the Memorandum of Agreement at the ELIXIR All Hands Meeting 2024. Left to right: Joana Wingender (Governance and International Partnerships Officer, ELIXIR), Ishwar Chandramouliswaran (Lead, FAIR Data & Resources, Office of Data Science Strategy, NIH), Tim Hubbard (ELIXIR Director), Andrea Guzmán Mesa (International Relations Officer, ELIXIR).