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Biotechnology research is multidisciplinary and relies on the availability of various facilities and services. Today, the European biotechnology community can utilise a large variety of Research Infrastructures and Research Services, spanning the whole breadth of the biotechnology sector and beyond.
European Research Infrastructure (RI) is coordinated by ESFRI, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure. ESFRI was launched in 2002 and aims to support a coherent and strategy-led approach to policy-making on research infrastructures in Europe. In addition, ESFRI intends to facilitate multilateral initiatives leading to the better use and development of research infrastructures at a European and international level. The ESFRI Delegates are representatives from EU member and associated states, and the European Commission who are nominated for two years.
ESFRI maintains Strategy Working Groups in Energy, Health & Food, Environment, Social & Cultural Innovation, and Physical Sciences & Engineering, which have been publishing a Roadmap on Research Infrastructures since 2006. Roadmap is updated regularly and the most recent was published in 2018 (http://roadmap2018.esfri.eu/media/1066/esfri-roadmap-2018.pdf)
European RI is established and operated by the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), which provides the legal framework for the RI.
There are currently seven distributed infrastructures which are relevant to biotechnology:
| Name | Location | Service provided | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| EMBRC - European Marine Biological Resource Centre http://www.embrc.eu/ |
Partners in: BE, FR, GR, IL, IT, NO, PT, ES, UK | Support for basic and applied marine biology and ecology research.
|
Access request by contacting the respective partner organisation http://www.embrc.eu/servicerequests/exploration/explore/128#highlightCat:33 |
| EU-OPENSCREEN - European Infrastructure of Open Screening Platform for Chemical Biology http://www.eu-openscreen.eu/ |
Berlin, DE | Support for all aspects of chemical biology.
|
Assay & compound providers (academia & commercial sector); projects selected on basis of scientific excellence, novelty and impact |
| ISBE - Infrastructure for Systems Biology Europe http://project.isbe.eu/ |
Partners in: CZ, FI, DE, GR, IE, IT, NO, NL, SI, ES, SE, UK | Support for systems biology through national SysBio centres.
|
Access through a central web portal for academic & non-academic sector |
| MIRRI - Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure http://www.mirri.org/home.html |
Partners in: BE, CZ, DK, FI, FR, DE, GR, HU, IT, LV, NL, PL, PT, RO, RU, SK, ES, SE, UK | Support for academia & bio-industry.
|
Access to participating microbial domain Biological Resource Centres |
| ELIXIR - A distributed infrastructure for life-science information https://www.elixir-europe.org/ |
Partners in: BE, CZ, DK, EE, FI, FR, DE, GR, IE, IL, IT, LU, NL, NO, PT, SI, ES, SE, CH, UK | Coordination of life science resources across Europe
|
Dependent on user needs |
| INSTRUCT - The Integrated Structural Biology Infrastructure https://www.structuralbiology.eu/ |
Partners in: BE, CZ, DK, FR, IL, IT, NL, NO, PT, SK, ES, UK | Support for all levels of structural biology. | Access available to researchers from Instruct member countries (subject to peer review); basic research funded by INSTRUCT, fees for commercial users |
| IBISBA - Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology Accelerator https://www.ibisba.eu/ |
Partners in BE, FR, FI, IT, DE, GR, NL, ES, UK | Support for IB and SynBio:
|
Transnational access through regular calls |
Biotechnology research is a multidisciplinary sector that requires input from various other fields.
Data management, communication & dissemination and the inclusion of Responsible Research and Innovation, to name a few, are key components of the modern scientific environment and cannot always be performed by just one research group.
Over the last few years, often with the help of the EC, several services have been established to help the biotechnology community with these extracurricular activities.
| Name | Service provided | Access |
|---|---|---|
| FAIRDOM https://fair-dom.org/ |
Data & model management service facility for Systems Biology
|
Access for individuals & organisations |
| RRI tools https://www.rri-tools.eu/ |
Support in Responsible Research and Innovation for all actors
|
Free access (registration for increased functions) |
| CommBeBiz https://www.commbebiz.eu/ |
Enabling faster knowledge-transfer in the bioeconomy sector
|
Free access through website |
| KETBio http://ketbio.eu/ |
Novel cluster model to bring KEY ENABLING BIOTECHNOLOGY research closer to markets and society
|
Free access for individuals |
| European IPR Helpdesk https://www.iprhelpdesk.eu/ |
Cross-border support for SME and research activities to manage, disseminate and valorize technologies, other Intellectual Property (IP) Rights and IP assets
|
Free access (registration required) |
| JointProgramming.nl http://jointprogramming.nl/ |
Forum for EU action in the bioeconomy, food and environmental sector | Free access |
| ERA LEARN https://www.era-learn.eu/ |
Support platform/online database for public-public partnerships (P2P) under H2020 | Free access |