Inge Jonnason (C), Head of Norwegian ELIXIR Node, with Robert-Jan Smits (L) and Finn Drablos (R)
Norway is now the sixth country - and seventh member - to ratify the ELIXIR Consortium Agreement (ECA), the document providing the legal basis for ELIXIR. ECA signatories, who are full members of the ELIXIR infrastructure, include (in order of signing): the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Norway and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
Mr. Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, Minister of Education and Research, Norway, states on the happy occasion of Norway ratifying the ECA, ”Norway is pleased and proud to be joining forces with other European countries in order to develop a state-of-the-art infrastructure for analysing, storing and sharing data generated from the life sciences. Greater capacity to handle the ever increasing amount of biological data is paramount. The ELIXIR infrastructure will provide scientists from all partnership countries with essential tools for performing high quality research.”
ELIXIR was established as a legal entity in late 2013 when the ECA was ratified by Estonia, the fifth country to do so. The formal launch of ELIXIR took place in Brussels on 18 December 2013. Over the comings months, many more signatories to the ELIXIR Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will follow suit and formally ratify the ECA, becoming full members.
Local press releases are available, in Norwegian, via the websites of the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.