ELIXIR Europe
Overview
ELIXIR is the European infrastructure for life science data, coordinating national bioinformatics nodes across 23 member countries to provide sustainable access to biological databases, tools, training, and compute resources. Established in 2013 as an ESFRI landmark infrastructure, ELIXIR ensures that the data generated by publicly funded life science research in Europe is FAIR, accessible, and reusable over the long term. The ELIXIR Hub, hosted at EMBL-EBI, coordinates the network. France participates through IFB (Institut Français de Bioinformatique) as ELIXIR-FR.
Structure
Hub (EMBL-EBI)
The ELIXIR Hub at EMBL-EBI provides strategic coordination and governance, core data resources (operated by EMBL-EBI member databases: UniProt, ENA, EGA, Ensembl), development of ELIXIR-wide services and standards, and management of the ELIXIR AAI (Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure), a federated identity service enabling single sign-on across ELIXIR services.
National Nodes (23 countries)
Each member country operates a national node providing local resources, tools, and training. ELIXIR-FR is IFB (Institut Français de Bioinformatique). ELIXIR-UK covers EMBL-EBI and UK life science institutions. ELIXIR-NL is the Dutch Techcentre for Life Sciences (DTL). ELIXIR-DE is de.NBI (German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure).
Five Platforms
ELIXIR organises its services into five platforms:
| Platform | Focus | Relevant examples |
|---|---|---|
| Data | Data resources, repositories, data standards | EGA, EVA, BioStudies, FAIR data |
| Tools | Bioinformatics tools, software registries | bio.tools, OpenEBench, Biocontainers |
| Interoperability | Standards, ontologies, data integration | FAIR Principles, GA4GH standards |
| Compute | HPC, cloud, federated analysis | ELIXIR Cloud, IFB NNCR, usegalaxy.eu |
| Training | Life science training coordination | TeSS training portal, Software Carpentry |
ELIXIR Communities
Cross-node thematic communities focus on specific research areas. The Human Data Community handles GDPR-compliant sharing of sensitive human genomic and health data, directly relevant to EGA, EHDS, and Health Data Hub integration. The Rare Diseases Community covers rare disease data standards including ORDO, HPO, and Phenopackets, aligned with ERN patient registries and ELIXIR-RD. Other communities cover Marine Metagenomics, Plant Sciences, Metabolomics, and Proteomics.
ELIXIR AAI
The ELIXIR Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (ELIXIR AAI) provides federated identity (researchers log in once using their institutional account via eduGAIN and access all ELIXIR services), group and permission management for controlled-access data (e.g. EGA access), and the basis for the European Genome-phenome Archive DAC access workflow.
Connections
- Hub: EMBL-EBI
- French node: IFB
- Core databases: EGA, EVA, ENA
- ESFRI cluster: BBMRI-ERIC, EATRIS, ECRIN, Euro-BioImaging
- Part of: EOSC
Resources
- https://elixir-europe.org
- https://elixir-europe.org/platforms (five platforms overview)
- https://elixir-europe.org/communities (ELIXIR Communities)
- https://tess.elixir-europe.org (TeSS training portal)
- https://bio.tools (ELIXIR Tools Registry)
- https://elixir-europe.org/services/compute (ELIXIR Cloud and Compute)