5 countries and EMBL sign Memorandum of Understanding to make ELIXIR a reality

"Today marks an important step for ELIXIR, Europe's emerging research infrastructure for life-science information, as five countries plus the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to catalyse the implementation and construction of ELIXIR. The memorandum has been signed by Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and more countries are planning to join in the near future. All European countries are invited to engage with ELIXIR. ELIXIR is a pan-European initiative to operate a sustainable infrastructure for managing and safeguarding biological information in Europe. It will secure public access to information about the building blocks of life, including genes, proteins and complex networks. This will support life science research and its translation to medicine and the environment, the bio-industries and society to deliver economic growth. Consistent with the movement towards open access to data and publications, ELIXIR will make important information freely available to researchers across academia and industry...."