UK Leads European Research Programme with £10M Investment
The UK has made its first substantial commitment to a major emerging pan-European science project with a £10M investment by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). BBSRC has awarded funding to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), (VPH NoE Core Member) based at Hinxton near Cambridge, to permit a dramatic increase in the institute's data storage and handling capacity. The funding is the first step in developing the existing data resources and IT infrastructure of EMBL-EBI towards its planned role as the central hub of the emerging European Life-Science Infrastructure for Biological Information (ELIXIR), placing the UK at the forefront of this multinational initiative.Modern bioscience research, including the new generation of high through-put sequencing technologies, generates huge amounts of data. In order to use the data efficiently and to accelerate bioscience advances, such as the development of new drugs and therapies or higher yielding crops, scientists require better ways to deal with this avalanche of information. ELIXIR is an initiative involving 32 partners from 13 countries aimed at establishing a sustainably funded infrastructure for biological information in Europe. It will support life science research and its applications to medicine, agriculture and food security, the environment, the bio-industries and society.
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About EMBL-EBI
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) is a non-profit academic organisation that forms part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
The EBI is a centre for research and services in bioinformatics. The Institute manages databases of biological data including nucleic acid, protein sequences and macromolecular structures.