ELIXIR and Instruct-ERIC announce Memorandum of Understanding

ELIXIR, the European life science data infrastructure, and Instruct-ERIC, the European research infrastructure for structural biology, have announced a strategic collaboration with the signing of a joint statement.

Along with their shared objectives to support life science research, the organisations have in common 13 Member States and EMBL as partners, and have closely located headquarters.

ELIXIR and Instruct agree to work together to:

Improve the FAIRness (findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability) of digital objects associated with structural biology research
Promote the application of artificial intelligence (AI) methods to life science research by supporting access to well-curated and structured biological data
Align activities in areas of mutual scientific and technical interest

Tim Hubbard, ELIXIR Director, said: "I’m delighted that ELIXIR will be working more closely with Instruct-ERIC. By combining ELIXIR’s expertise in data standards and sharing with Instruct’s strengths in structural biology, we can ensure that vital research data is not only accessible but also easy to use and integrate. This partnership will help researchers make better use of structural biology data and apply new methods, such as AI, to tackle important scientific questions."

Harald Schwalbe, Instruct-ERIC Director said: "We are delighted to enhance our strong ties with ELIXIR even further. Integrated structural biology continues to solve biomolecular structures at a breathtaking pace and to expand into new fields, including RNA and intrinsically disordered proteins and their dynamics. Together with ELIXIR, we will work on making experimental data available and usable for researchers worldwide."

Further details of the joint activities are given below.

Improving the FAIRness of structural biology research

ELIXIR and Instruct will work together to streamline the deposition of data from Instruct resources in ELIXIR Core Data Resources. They will work to increase the FAIRness of deposited data by facilitating linkage to Instruct data and metadata. In addition, standards for sharing and promoting diverse data types will be developed and promoted, particularly for data associated with the techniques of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and circular dichroism (CD).

Applying AI methods in structural biology

The collaboration will promote training opportunities and research collaborations in AI, including the validation of AI models using Instruct's expertise in experimental methods and ELIXIR’s expertise in AI standards. It will also foster the development of AI-ready data repositories in emerging areas like fragment screening and structure-based drug design.

Exploring areas of shared interest

Instruct and ELIXIR will explore areas of shared interest and develop joint activities where relevant. Areas include training, capacity building, international collaboration, EU projects, scientific and socio-economic impact assessment and European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) engagement. In addition, the organisations will encourage collaborations between respective national nodes, work together on joint EU funding applications and promote the visibility of jointly funded activities.

Harald Schwalbe, Instruct-ERIC Director (left) and Tim Hubbard, ELIXIR Director

ELIXIR is an intergovernmental organisation that brings together life science resources from across its 23 Member States and one Observer country. ELIXIR is legally established as an international organisation, with headquarters in Hinxton, UK.

INSTRUCT-ERIC is a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). It has 17 Members as of November 2024 and is governed by Member representatives in accordance with the ERIC regulation.

Contacts:

ELIXIR - Andrea Guzman Mesa, andrea.guzmanmesa@elixir-europe.org
Instruct-ERIC - Natalie Haley, natalie@instruct-eric.org