IFB — Institut Français de Bioinformatique (ELIXIR-FR)
Overview
The Institut Français de Bioinformatique is the French national bioinformatics infrastructure and the French node of ELIXIR (ELIXIR-FR). Founded in 2012 under the Investissements d’Avenir programme, IFB federates 20 member bioinformatics platforms and 17 contributing platforms and associated teams across France, providing computing resources, data management tools, training, and FAIR data support to the life sciences research community.
Key Services and Tools
Data Management and FAIR
- DSW@IFB is IFB’s instance of the Data Stewardship Wizard, an ELIXIR Recommended Interoperability Resource used for collaborative development of thematic DMP templates for French life sciences infrastructures and to build machine-actionable DMPs.
- DMP OPIDoR, hosted by INIST-CNRS, is recommended as the primary DMP tool for French researchers writing project DMPs for ANR and other funders. IFB’s maDMP4LS project has developed programmatic integration between DSW@IFB and DMP OPIDoR so that DMP data can flow between the two systems.
- FAIR-Checker is an automated FAIR assessment tool for digital resources, developed by IFB and contributing to ELIXIR FAIR services.
Computing Infrastructure
- The National Network of Computing Resources (NNCR) is a distributed HPC infrastructure spanning 10 sites across France, combining cluster-based HPC and cloud computing access for life sciences research.
- usegalaxy.fr is the French instance of the Galaxy open analysis platform, providing FAIR and reproducible bioinformatics workflows.
Training
IFB runs an active training programme in bioinformatics, research data management, and FAIR principles. It is the primary organiser of French bioinformatics training events and contributes to the ELIXIR TeSS training portal.
Position in the French Ecosystem
IFB is the operational life sciences bioinformatics node translating FAIR and open science policy into concrete tools and compute infrastructure. It has been labelled Centre de Référence Thématique (CRT) for biology and health within the Recherche Data Gouv ecosystem since 2022.
Connections
- European node: ELIXIR
- Disciplinary node: Recherche Data Gouv (life sciences competence centre)
- DMP tools: OPIDoR
- Umbrella: INBS