ELIXIR Norway - a distributed infrastructure for the next generation of life science

In this project we continue, consolidate and expand the infrastructure for bioinformatics in Norway, and in Europe, by being the national node of the European ELIXIR organization. The project is coordinated from the University of Bergen and includes activity (sub-nodes) at the University of Oslo, The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, and the Norwegian University of Life Science at Ås, outside Oslo. Proper bioinformatics infrastructure and support is of vital importance for a number of highly prioritized research areas within life science, in particular with an increased focus on Open Science, where data are well documented, stored safely and available for re-use. The national strategy for biotechnology for 2011-2020 identifies bioinformatics as a key area for the strategy, and stresses that a powerful and well-functioning infrastructure is essential. Personalized medicine is one of several areas in life science that needs attention, and this is a good example of a research area where infrastructure for data management and analysis is essential. Through the project we continue to build and operate the Norwegian e-infrastructure for Life Science, NeLS. The NeLS system allows users to upload and share files and to organize their work, and flexible analysis functionality is also integrated with NeLS. The project intends to increase bioinformatics and systems biology capacity and competence across Norway, and to provide relevant services to the international community through ELIXIR Europe. Through open calls we include services also from other groups.

The project concerns a consolidation and strengthening of ELIXIR Norway - a node of the pan-European infrastructure ELIXIR. The Norwegian ELIXIR Node contributes to the established pan-European infrastructure ELIXIR - an ESFRI Landmark - by providing competence and resources towards the marine domain including fish and microbial genomics, and towards biomedicine. The Node implements an e-infrastructure supporting life science research and development. Marine genomics/metagenomics are important both for management of wild fisheries and for a sustainable economical aquaculture industry. The Node´s activities will include implementation and operation of supporting databases and tools towards the marine domain. The central health registries together with the population based and clinical biobanks present opportunities for better understanding of a number of diseases, and thus requires specialized and integrated bioinformatics resources, including resources for sensitive data. The Node operates NeLS (Norwegian E-Infrastructure for the Life Sciences), and will extend the capabilities and capacity of NeLS - an activity that will be closely coordinated with National and European e-infrastructure projects. NeLS is implemented with emphasis on adherence to standards and aims to serve as a showcase for integrative bioinformatics and e-infrastructures. The Norwegian Node is coordinated from Bergen and include activities in Oslo, Trondheim, Tromsø, and Ås. This distributed structure allows the Node to benefit from relevant research activity at the largest Norwegian universities, and also improves its ability to provide training and support to end-users. The Node serves the Norwegian user community over a broad spectrum aiding users in academia, government, and industry to take advantage of ELIXIR resources.