On 11 April 2022 WP5 launched Life Science Login, a common user authentication and authorisation service for the LS research infrastructures. ELIXIR AAI was simultaneously migrated to LS Login.

Users can now use their home organization credentials or community or other identities (e.g. Google, Linkedin, LS username) to sign in and access data and services connected to LS Login. It also allows service providers (both in academia and industry) to control and manage access rights of their users and create different access levels for research groups or international projects.

ELIXIR AAI user community was already migrated into LS Login and other research infrastructure AAIs (BBMRI-ERIC, Instruct ARIA) will be migrated in following months.

You can find more information how to create and manage your account or how to connect the service to LS Login on LS Login web.

EASI-Genomics supports researchers in next-generation sequencing and other high-end genomics applications and genomic data analysis. The fourth call for Transnational Access is now open and is welcoming proposals from academia and industry. EASI-Genomics will provide free-of-charge sequencing and data analysis services to selected projects. Interested researchers should consult the conditions on the EASI-Genomics website. The deadline for online submission is the 10^th of April 2022, 23:55 CET.

For additional information about this call contact easi-genomics(at)mdc-berlin.de.

How do European life science research infrastructures bring together scientists and core facilities to support interdisciplinary research? A recent Backstory article in iScience entitled “Euro-BioImaging – Interdisciplinary research infrastructure bringing together communities and imaging facilities to support excellent research” highlights the CORBEL project, explaining how European research infrastructures can help scientists advance their research in a complex world, where multidisciplinary studies based on new technologies are often required.

Read the “language” section of this article to learn what specific challenges can be faced by interdisciplinary researchers and how life science research infrastructures help them to overcome these.  Read the article

ERINHA-Advance has opened a TNA call for proposals. Your application for free of charge TNA to ERINHA services may request in vitro and/or in vivo high containment services for supporting and advancing your research in one of the main following areas:

• SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis (e.g., innovative technologies, improvement of existing methods, etc.);
• Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2;
• Therapeutics with direct anti-SARS-CoV-2 effects, including new or repurposed drugs; monoclonal antibodies, synthetic antibodies, etc.;
• Pathophysiology of field variants in target cells, virus-host interactions, elicited immune responses;
• Transmission characteristics of field variants, including in animal models.

Euro-BioImaging, one of the Life Science Research Infrastructures, launched its first open call for user projects this fall. They are looking for researchers interested in carrying out a biological or biomedical imaging project at one of their 33 Nodes. Successful applicants will receive up to 5000 Euros to cover access, consumables, travel and accommodation costs.

Deadline is 15 December 2021. Find out more here. 

The RI-VIS project has published three white papers that provide recommendations on how to increase collaboration between European research infrastructures and counterparts from Africa, Latin America and Australia. The papers are targeted at funders, policy makers and research infrastructure managers and collate the insights of 21 experts from research infrastructures and policymakers from the respective regions.

International cooperation on the level of research infrastructures is key to addressing major global challenges including climate change, infectious disease, food security and natural disasters. The EU-funded RI-VIS project, a consortium of 13 partners from European research infrastructures, aims to increase the visibility of European research infrastructures and raise awareness in new communities beyond Europe.

As part of this goal, RI-VIS has just published three white papers providing region-specific recommendations to funders, policy makers and research infrastructure managers on how to increase international collaboration among research infrastructures. Each white paper focuses on specific regions: (1) African-European, (2) Latin American-European and (3) Australian-European cooperation, respectively. The papers collate the insights of a total of 21 experts from research infrastructures, policy-makers and relevant governmental institutions from different regions collected through in-depth interviews. 

Read the white papers.

EU-AMRI, the European Alliance of Medical Research Infrastructures, is the new alliance between the European medical research Infrastructures BBMRI, EATRIS and ECRIN. EU-AMRI aims to facilitate the effective and efficient use of scientific services, expertise and tools by academia and industry for the seamless translation of their scientific discoveries into new treatments and solutions for patients.

With EU-AMRI, the three medical research infrastructures share a commitment to increasing patient benefit of research, promoting good research practice and ensuring greater access to available infrastructure resources. The end goal of EU-AMRI is to make it easier for the broader research community to achieve their goals by delivering scientific services with the highest standards of quality and reproducibility.

Via a new website www.eu-amri.org, EU-AMRI allows industry and academia to conveniently choose from a range of services according to their needs. These services span the biomedical pipeline, from preclinical models to sample access, biomarker research to multinational clinical trials and product development. In addition, the research infrastructures offer extensive training and support in ethical, legal and societal issues (ELSI), quality management, regulatory affairs, public-private collaborations and more. 

About EU-AMRI

The European Alliance of Medical Research Infrastructures (EU-AMRI) is the result of the collaboration between three European medical research infrastructures, namely EATRIS-ERIC (focused on translational medicine), ECRIN-ERIC (focused on multinational clinical research) and BBMRI-ERIC (focused on biobanking and biomolecular resources). It aims to provide complementary services to researchers in the field of biomedical sciences and support the development of personalised medicine and new treatments. Established in 2020, but co-operating since 2014, EU-AMRI comprises over 700 research institutions and university hospitals, 29 European Countries as Members or Observers, working to improve the research process and tackle unmet medical needs. EU-AMRI continues to play a meaningful role in the global response to COVID-19, dealing with challenges related to diagnostic tests, biomarker development, development of treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.

EBRAINS, the digital pan-European research infrastructure developed by the EU-funded Flagship Human Brain Project, has been selected for the Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). 

EBRAINS’ mission is to be a major enabler to advance brain research covering different areas such as neuroscience, brain health and brain-inspired technology. EBRAINS aims to contribute to significant scientific progress and innovation for the benefit of patients, industry and society as whole.

Science infrastructures included into the ESFRI Roadmap, which include the Life Science Research Infrastructures, go through a thorough evaluation and selection procedure, taking both scientific excellence and implementation rigor into account.

Read more here. 

The EATRIS website has been fully redesigned and now includes interactive maps, an improved navigation system, an ‘Explore As’ option to access curated content, new images, a fresh look for country pages, acknowledgment of funding bodies on every page, an interactive services ribbon, and more.

To create the new website, EATRIS conducted extensive work on the needs of our community, including focus groups, surveys, interviews and user experience testing and incorporated all of the feedback into the new design.

Provital, a company devoted to making high-quality, sustainable cosmetics ingredients. Their R&D department has worked with 2 Life Science Research Infrastructures, Next Generation Sequencing at the Sciences Academy of Athens (BBMRI member), and the Bioinformatics Platform at the Berlin Institute of Medical System Biology (BIMSB) of MDC-Berlin (ISBE).

As awardees of the CORBEL Open Call for User Projects, Provital's Miguel Aso sent some samples to our NGS sequencing platform at BRFAA in Athens. Visiting the facility and receiving on-site training would also have been possible, if desired. The sequencing data were shared with the bioinformatics platform at MDC, where they were analyzed and sent back to Provital. The CORBEL grant provided the technical expertise, staff hours, instrument time, and consumables. The users also had the opportunity to learn about other interdisciplinary CORBEL Open Call projects and the technologies and services that were accessed by our users at several CORBEL events.

Read the full interview here.

 EASI-Genomics supports researchers in next-generation sequencing and other high-end genomics applications and genomic data analysis. The third call for Transnational Access is now open and is welcoming proposals from academia and industry. EASI-Genomics will provide free-of-charge sequencing and data analysis services to selected projects. Interested researchers should consult the conditions on the EASI-Genomics website (https://www.easi-genomics.eu/access/calls) and in the attached call text. Deadline for online submission is 1^st of March 2021, 23:59 CET.

If you wish to know more, then please register to our showcasing event on 4^th February 2021 by completing this Google Form. Agenda:

• Introduction of EASI-Genomics
• Overview of the participating facilities
• Presentation of 6 previously selected projects
• Concept of Transnational Access and other call requirements
• Q&A

Do not hesitate to contact easi-genomics(at)mdc-berlin.de if you wish additional information about this call.

Euro-BioImaging created a video highlighting the efforts of Roberta Ranieri of the University of Perugia, Italy, to complete research work at European Life Science Research Infrastructures, navigating travel restrictions and quarantine rules during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Ranieri has a unique scientific background, in cancer biology investigation and drug development methods. In 2017 she was awarded a PhD fellowship at the Department of Medicine of the University of Perugia, Italy, under the supervision of Professor Maria Paola Martelli. Professor Martelli focuses her research on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with the aim to translate findings into novel diagnostic tools and therapies. As awardees of the CORBEL Open Call for User Projects, this project was able to be completed thanks to their perseverence.

Watch the video here. 

Another paper resulting from the CORBEL Open Call for User Projects was published in Frontiers of Pharmacology in December 2020. "Evaluation of serum/urine genomic and metabolomic profiles to improve the adherence to sildenafil therapy in patients with erectile dysfunction" is based on research carried out within the CORBEL Open Call with Dott. Luca De Toni, PhD, using the LS RIs BBMRI-ERIC (BRFAA) and Instruct-ERIC (CERM/CIRMMP).

Read the paper here: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.602369

Check out the recent publication in Nature, entitled ROS networks: Designs, aging, Parkinson’s disease and precision therapies by CORBEL service providers Alexey Kolodkin and Hans Westerhoff and CORBEL users Anna Maria Colangelo and Raju Prasad Sharma, supported by the CORBEL Open Call. The users took advantage of resources from the LS RIs ISBE (ISBE.NL and ISBE.IT) and ELIXIR. 

Read the publication here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41540-020-00150-w

CORDIS EU Research Results recently published an article on the CORBEL project, which closed in May 2020, on its website. 

The article highlights several successful outcomes of the project, which integrated various resources across European institutes, such as biological and medical technologies, biological samples and data services. It also points to the the continuation of CORBEL-initiated services within the Life Science Research Infrastructure (LS RI) community. 

Read the article here.

The Assembly of Members of BBMRI-ERIC, the European Research Infrastructure for biobanking and biomolecular resources, appointed Professor Jens K. Habermann as new Director General. The distinguished scientist, clinician and recognized expert in biobanking, translational cancer research and human genetics takes office in Graz on September 1st, 2020. He succeeds Erik Steinfelder, who served as Director General of BBMRI-ERIC from August 2017 to January 2020.

Prof. Habermann is currently President of ESBB (European, Middle Eastern & African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking) and holds three positions at the University of Lübeck and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein: he is Head of the Interdisciplinary Center for Biobanking-Lübeck, Head of the Section for Translational Surgical Oncology and Biobanking, and he works clinically as specialist in human genetics. In the official and public interest, the University of Lübeck and the State Government of Schleswig-Holstein generously grant Prof. Habermann leave of absence for his full-time appointment at BBMRI-ERIC. However, he resigned from his clinical positions in order to take on his new position at BBMRI-ERIC.

Read more here. 

On 31 July 2020, several Life Science Research Infrastructures, together with European patients associations, submitted a joint response to a public consultation on common European data spaces. 

The response is entitled Facilitating health research and protecting citizens’ rights: Life science research infrastructures and patient advocates joint reply to the “Legislative framework for the governance of common European data spaces” and argues that the success of European data spaces will depend on how well the European Commission can "integrate and interconnect the expertise, tools, research infrastructures and networks already in place".

By involving Life Science Research Infrastructures early on in the process, the long-term sustainability of the desired policy options can be ensured. 

Read the full response here. 

This video was commissioned by BBMRI-ERIC within the CORBEL project. 

The EPPN2020 provides researchers from academia and industry with access to 31 phenotyping facilities in Europe. The facilities can be used for experiments with either scientific or technological objectives. EPPN2020 launchs calls for access, open to European groups and (to a limited extent) to groups from emerging countries or international research centers.

Selected users obtain full support to perform the proposed experiments including:

• Free access for eligible user groups to research facilities
• Support for travel and accommodation
• On-site logistic support by the infrastructure staff
• Access to knowledge and know-how at the research infrastructures necessary to complete the proposed experimental work

For more information on available facilities, rules for access, and application forms, please visit the EPPN2020 page.

Proposal submission deadlines: 30.06.2020 20:00 CEST
Notification to applicants: at the latest by 15.07.2020
Start of projects: before 31.08.2020
Proposals will be evaluated continuously starting from 31.05.2020 and initiated upon acceptance.

In light of the current Covid-19 crisis, EASI-Genomics is taking the measure to issue an extraordinary call. EASI-Genomics invites external users to apply for access with proposals related to the COVID-19 epidemic for a total budget of 0.5 million €. The Transnational Access rule that applied to EASI-Genomics’ previous calls will exceptionally be waived. However, EASI-Genomics will endeavor to achieve balanced access to services across all EU countries for each EASI-Genomics facility in the overall selection process.

This Extraordinary EASI-Genomics call will focus on whole-genome (short- and/or long-read), whole exome and RNA sequencing of human patients from low-risk populations with severe forms of SARS-Cov-2 infection that have experienced adverse reactions or fatal outcomes. Hence samples from individuals below 50 years of age, with no underlying evident co-morbidities prior to the infection such as diabetes, hypertension, and overweight will be considered in this call (e.g. fasting blood sugar level < 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L), blood pressure < 120/80mmHg, Body Mass Index between 18.5 and 30). Clinical description according to GeCo - COVID-19 phenotype definition should be available for the patients to be included.

Read the rest of the call here.

CORBEL has released the first in a series of animated videos on the benefits of working with Life Science Research Infrastructures. 

"European Life Science Research Infrastructures: How Users Advance their Research Projects" takes a look at ways our Open Call users took advantage of cutting-edge technologies from CORBEL Research Infrastructures like Euro-BioImaging, ISBE and BBMRI to make discoveries in their research fields. 

We hope this video serves as inspiration to future potential users to get in touch with the LS RIs and find out how we can help you! 

Frauke Leitner (Euro-BioImaging) and Sonja Hansen (MDC) drafted this video within WP4 using BIOCOM to design and animate the videos. We encourage our partners to share it widely!

Apply Now!

Proposals submission deadline for priority access: 22 June 2020

European Research Infrastructure on Highly Pathogenic Agents (ERINHA) extends its commitment to the current scientific effort by launching a call for proposals fully dedicated to COVID 19 / SARS CoV 2 research.

With the support of the EU funded H2020 project ERINHA-Advance, ERINHA will offer the selected scientists and their projects free of charge transnational access (TNA) to its cutting edge high containment and complementary facilities. The selection of the projects will be based on peer review & scientific merit through fast track evaluation.

Applications must fall into one of the following scientific sections listed below

- SECTION 1: Diagnosis tools & Immunological Tests for COVID 19 / SARS CoV 2

- SECTION 2: Therapeutics against COVID 19 / SARS CoV 2

- SECTION 3: Vaccines against SARS CoV 2

- SECTION 4: Process development

- SECTION 5: Other Tools & Methods related to COVID 19 / SARS CoV 2

Submission deadline: Proposals are recommended to be submitted prior to Monday 22 June, 2020 for priority access. Proposals received after 22 June, 2020 will be evaluated, selected and implemented on a rolling basis. For more information go to ERINHA TNA calls page

For any question, contact the CCU team

EMBL is looking for an enthusiastic and driven Scientific Project Manager to join the training team to work on our European funded training projects. Training is a core activity across EMBL-EBI, involving almost every part of the organisation and coordinated by a team of 28 people. The Training Team delivers a world-recognised programme that encompasses face-to-face and online learning, training trainers and secondments. The training team also contributes to several externally funded projects.

For any further information and to apply, please visit the website here.

The Spanish Type Culture Collection – University of Valencia (CECT-UV) is looking for an IT manager for the H2020Projects IS_MIRRI21. For any further information and to apply, please visit the website of the University of Valencia.

The Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Plant Sciences Division (IBG-2) is looking to recruit a Research scientist in the field of Bioinformatics and Data Management. IBG-2 is a world leader in plant phenotyping, with excellent knowledge of the dynamic interaction between plants and the environment, combined with technology development, engineering and bioinformatics. The department develops and operates relevant next-generation infrastructure platforms and technologies and makes them available to external users.

You will be responsible for managing and operating interdisciplinary research projects in the framework of EPPN 2020, EMPHASIS and EOSC-Life aiming at enabling interoperability of plant data in the European scientific community. 

UPDATE: This vacancy is now closed. 

As the preparatory project EMPHASIS-PREP will be finalised towards the end of 2020, EMPHASIS progresses in developing its business plan in discussion with national ministries. To this end, EMPHASIS brought together representatives from 14 countries that have expressed interest in supporting the implementation of EMPHASIS in a web-based meeting on 19 February. The participants discussed specific activities required to implement this service organisation, comprising firstly the establishment of the governance supporting service provision and testing parts of the service portfolio. The group plans to meet the next time towards the end of April, following up on this exchange and starting to take concrete decisions towards realising the implementation of EMPHASIS.

"For the advancement of science: Working with European Life Science Research Infrastructures" is a new brochure created out of CORBEL to introduce the Life Science RIs, and it is now available. Please click here to download the PDF (4.8 Mb).

In the brochure, we want to explain why access to services and technologies offered by the RIs, the collaborative work of RIs, and in particular, the creation of common service pipelines are advancing life science research. We would like to feature the RIs in our WP4 impact brochure, which are committed to continue their joint efforts independently of CORBEL, and which have indicated that they willing to set up bilateral collaboration agreements.

Explore the many advantages of working with Life Science Research Infrastructures! 

It’s competition time: EMPHASIS, in collaboration with the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN e.V.) is launching a photo competition in plant phenotyping. EMPHASIS is looking for the best photographs depicting plant phenotyping from any angle. These could include (but are not restricted to) photographs of researchers, phenotyping facility, equipment, plants, experimental images or artistic interpretations of the topic. Everyone is welcome to participate. Find out more on the EMPHASIS website.

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) will accelerate research to address future global challenges such as COVID-19.

Niklas Blomberg, coordinator of CORBEL and EOSC-Life, was featured in an article highlighting the need for the EOSC to address global health crises such as Coronavirus.

As we collaborate to build the EOSC, a few use cases are already showing the potential benefit of the EOSC to global health.

Blomberg argues that open science allows faster, more efficient research, which he has experienced first-hand while collaborating with ELIXIR-Belgium and de.NBI/ELIXIR-Germany on an initiative addressing COVID-19.

“Open data and open reproducible workflow also allow European scientists to collaborate globally,” says Blomberg. “Our recent collaboration on COVID-19 genomes is a great example: four teams – two European, one in Australia, one in US work together to make reproducible workflows openly available to scientists globally.”

“This is the core of EOSC – fast, open access to as wide a pool of data and tools as possible for scientific collaborations.” EOSC-Life is one of the EOSC projects accelerating open science through open data, open reproducible tools and workflows in the life sciences field.

Read the full article here.

Credits for image EOSCsecretariat

UPDATE! This workshop has been postponed. New date TBA. 

Registration is now open for the workshop The Sample Preparation and Multiscale Imaging of Plankton workshop, held at Villefranche-sur-Mer from May 27th to May 29th, 2020. The workshop is organized by Euro-BIoImaing and EMBRC and contains practical demos and lectures and will allow participants to exchange about on-field sample preparation and discuss new strategies to prepare and observe cells at the nanoscale level using different imaging platforms.

Please note that the registration deadline is 31st March.

Any further information and the registration form is to be found on https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sample-preparation-and-multiscale-imaging-of-plankton-tickets-92710506621

Copyright for the plankton image: Decelle/Sardet/CNRS

CORBEL is looking for a webinar speaker available at the end of April/early May. The webinar has a working title “Communicating your RI during COVID-19” and will be aimed at communications managers and officers as well as other team members from RIs and their networks. As many RIs and their nodes are shifting focus to COVID-19 research at this time, communications teams are interested in:

• Communicating the importance of European coordination in research to solve global problems, framing where their RI fits into this landscape (through press releases, social media contents or other suitable channels)
• Promoting other research activities of their networks when much seems irrelevant to the public at the moment

The webinar will be run as hands-on as possible and the speaker should be available to provide feedback on communication strategies (e.g. press releases or tweets composed) for a few days after the webinar.

Previous CORBEL webinars can be found here: https://www.corbel-project.eu/webinars.html

Please submit a brief message of interest and price quote to caitlin.ahern(at)bbmri-eric.eu by 17 April.

EU-OPENSCREEN is looking for an Analytical Chemist for the head office in Berlin, Germany.

Responsibilities

- LC-MS analysis of chemical compound for determination of identity and purity

- Characterization of physical-chemical properties of chemical compounds a with a multimode plate reader

- Support in running the compound management facility (processing samples with liquid handler)

Requirements

- Master´s degree (MSc or equivalent) in Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry or equivalent.

- At least 2 years’ experience with LC-MS and other analytical methods (NMR). Experience in developing analytical methods, analysis of MS spectra and troubleshooting.

- Good laboratory practice and ability to work and to think independently. Good IT knowledge (LC/MS analytical software, chemistry software, MS Office etc.).

- Team spirit.

- Previous experience with liquid handlers, compound management, and programming is a plus.

- Very good knowledge of English; knowledge of at least one additional European language is a plus.

The position will initially be available for two years. Interested candidates should submit their updated CV with supporting documents and a motivational letter to jobs(at)eu-openscreen.eu. Applications are accepted until the position is filled. More information about the role can be obtained from wolfgang.fecke(at)eu-openscreen.eu, +49 30 9489 2420.

CORBEL and EOSC-Life organize the webinar series "Engaging with your community through events and training". The date has been set for the last webinar of the series, which will be an interactive discussion where you can ask questions and get tips about your training events and communication.

Date: April 23 2020, 14:00-15:00 CEST

Speakers will be Sarah Morgan from EMBL-EBI, and Caitlin Ahern from BBMRI-ERIC.

You should attend or watch the 3 previous webinars of the series if you want to attend this one. For more information on this webinar please visit the webinar section, and to register for this webinar please click here.

CORBEL and EOSC-Life are running a webinar series on communication and event organisation. In this series we will discuss about event management, course design and delivery, and effective scientific communication.

You can pick and choose which webinars you are interested in, and watch them live or catch up on the recordings. If you attend the last webinar of the series, we recommend that you have attended or watched the three previous webinars. You will need to register for each of the live webinars that you wish to join by using the registration links provided below.

More information and registration on the CORBEL website.

Due to the current situation with Covid-19, the CORBEL Innovation Helpdesk team canceled the best practice workshop on the theme of public-private research collaboration, which was scheduled on 21-22 April 2020 in Riga, Latvia. Any further information on this workshop or the possibility of rescheduling will be send out as soon as possible. Fur more information please visit the website.

Bioactive compounds are now part of EU-OPENSCREEN compound library. The bioactive compounds were selected from compounds contained in the Probes & Drugs portal, an up-to-date public resource for high-quality chemical tools. The bioactives’ library was designed with a strategy to cover wide target space, prioritizing selective, potent compounds. The final bioactives’ library of ~2,400 compounds covers almost 2,000 protein targets, containing several hundred compounds labeled as chemical probes and approved drugs.

EU-OPENSCREEN is ready to welcome compound donations from chemists to be included into the jointly used EU-OPENSCREEN compound collection. The donated compounds will be screened against a wide range of biological assays, thereby delivering extensive information about their biological activities. For more info visit the pages "How to donate your compound" and "Screening of donated compounds" on the EU-OPENSCREEN website.

The annual Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) International Conference took place 22-24 January 2020. The event was held at Les Halles de Schaerbeek and Area42 in Brussels and focused on the theme of Data Protection and Artificial Intelligence, paving the way for a thorough discussion on a broad range of ethical, legal and policy issues related to new technologies and data analytics. Michaela Th. Mayrhofer, BBMRI-ERIC Head of ELSI Services & Research, gave a talk within the session "Open Science with Health and Genetic Data: A Contradiction?", mentioning EOSC-Life and CORBEL. The complete presentation can be found here.

The Marie Curie Alumni meeting on March 28-29 in Zagreb was just cancelled. Please visit the website for any further information: https://www.mariecuriealumni.eu/2020-conference/home.

Registration is now open for a best practice workshop on the theme of public-private research collaboration (13-14 February 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal), organised by the CORBEL Innovation Helpdesk team.

This 2-day event will focus on all relevant aspects of setting up such collaborations, from initial contacts through planning and negotiation to completion of legal agreements and project implementation. In addition to plenary lectures covering various aspects there will be a use case for participants to work on in teams. The workshop is aimed primarily at representatives of research infrastructures and academic institutions who are or expect to be involved in the organization and implementation of such collaborative research programmes. More information, the registration link and the agenda can be found here.

EASI-Genomics (European Advanced infraStructure for Innovative Genomics) has opened a second call for transnational access projects: 

Timeline: 

Call open: 15.10.2019 8:00 CET 
Proposal submission deadlines: 01.12.2019 20:00 CET 
Notification to applicants: by 01.04.2020 
Start of projects: latest 6 months after notification  

EASI-Genomics is a European Genomics Infrastructure Horizon 2020 project. This novel infrastructure  supports researchers in next-generation sequencing and other high-end genomics applications and  genomic data analysis. The infrastructure is open to academic researchers, research groups and scientific  institutions. Projects from industry, including SMEs can be supported. Throughout four calls for access,  EASI-Genomics will provide support to more than 150 projects for a total budget of 6 million € over the  next four years. The first call for access awarded 32 projects for a total budget of 1.5 million €. The rules  of the European Commission only allow Transnational Access; applicants will not be granted access to a  facility that is in their home country. 

EASI-Genomics will support integrative projects covering expertise that is not available at the applicants’  home institution sites including high-throughput and cutting-edge sequencing, complex bioinformatic  analysis and possibly DNA extraction (e.g. ancient DNA). Of note, EASI-Genomics can also provide support  for data analysis for already existing data sets. In this case, applicants should describe available data  including sequencing technology used to generate it and the objective of the analysis. Costs of external  user projects for consumables, computation and for personnel required at the facilities will be covered by  EASI-Genomics.  

EASI-Genomics invites external users to apply for access by opening several calls for proposals. Interested  users can submit proposals to the 2nd  Call online via the EASI-Genomics website until December 01, 2019, 20:00 CET. Applicants are asked to describe the  objectives of their research and the desired experimental and computational methods required to achieve  these objectives. The objective of the EASI-Genomics Infrastructure is to support projects from study  design, through sequence to data analysis. Projects requesting sequencing support that could be provided  by a commercial sequencing service provider will be viewed less favorably. Eligible proposals will be  evaluated for scientific quality, feasibility, and impact. Proposals will be handled confidentially. EASIGenomics recommends external users to contact the facilities offering the services of interest in order to  discuss the feasibility of the submitted project prior to the submission of the proposal.

Details on the submission process, eligibility and evaluation criteria, and project implementation can be found at www.easi-genomics.eu 

More information is available here.

The Event management webinar will focus on practical aspects of event organisation within EU research projects and will guide you through some of the most important considerations and criteria for events funded from EU projects. It will also present a step-by-step guide for event organisation to help you plan and organise your events, while avoiding common mistakes which may lead to many stressful situations. The webinar will also cover communication and promotion and will give you practical tips to promote your event and efficiently communicate its outcomes. At the end of webinar you will be able to download the practical guidelines for your future events.

Title: How to make your event successful and eligible for EU funding: Event management for Research Infrastructures

Speaker: Dana Cernoskova (Scientifika - events for science)

Date: 3 December 2019

Time: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM CET

More informatione is available here.

The European Commission has officially established Euro-BioImaging – which provides life scientists with open access to a broad range of technologies and resources in biological and biomedical imaging – as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC).

Imaging technologies have a central role in driving fundamental research and applied innovations in both biological and biomedical research. These technologies help a very broad user and research community to reach breakthrough biological discoveries and to proceed with translation into innovations in the fields of medicine, diagnostics, drug development, biotechnology, and molecular ecology.

With its ERIC status, Euro-BioImaging is now legally recognised as a European research infrastructure for biological and biomedical imaging. Euro-BioImaging offers life scientists open access to imaging instruments, expertise, training opportunities, and data management services that they do not find at their home institutions or among their collaboration partners. All scientists, regardless of affiliation, area of expertise, or field of activity, can benefit from these pan-European open access services. Euro-BioImaging will ensure excellent research and development across the life sciences in Europe. All Euro-BioImaging services are accessible via www.eurobioimaging.eu. Establishment of the Euro-BioImaging ERIC builds on over 10 years of preparatory work with active engagement of 25 national imaging communities, funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

Amsterdam plays host to the next ARIA workshop that will be held on the 25th of February 2020. The workshop will be a series of talks that will give a background to the ARIA software and introduce some of its core features. We will be demonstrating the newly released features around visit and session management, including the financial reporting module developed in collaboration with EU-OPENSCREEN. There will also be an interactive feedback session for feedback and ideas gathering to help shape the future of ARIA. We hope that you will be able to join us at the event, supported by CORBEL and iNEXT with the room provided by the NKI.

Learn more & register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/aria-workshop-corbel-inext-instruct-eric-tickets-78013220643

ERINHA, the European research infrastructure on highly pathogenic agents, launched their first call for proposals to offer scientists free of charge transnational access (TNA) to ERINHA’s full catalog of services, including access to cutting edge high containment facilities.

Deadline: 15 December, 2019

More information: https://www.erinha.eu/pilot-transnational-access-calls/

BBMRI-ERIC is looking for an ELSI Services Officer based in Austria to support our ELSI team on ethical, legal and societal issues in biobanking and biomolecular resources. More information: https://buff.ly/2BgtYJm

The series focusses on reproducibility issues experienced during specific phases of drug development and is developed in close collaboration with other Research Infrastructures (EU-OPENSCREEN, INFRAFRONTIER, BBMRI, ECRIN) and initiatives such as Translation Together. All webinars will be recorded and available for later viewing and include a Q&A session. The first one is scheduled on November 8th between 15.00 -16.00. For more information and registration: https://eatris.eu/insights/webinar-series-quality-reproducibility-issues-drug-development/

Schedule:

SESSION 1: NOVEMBER 8th - 15.00 CET
The Relevance of Reproducibility for Drug Development: An Introduction
by Anton Ussi (EATRIS), Leonard Freedman (Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research) and Andreas Scherer (FIMM)

SESSION 2: NOVEMBER 19th – 15:00 CET
Quality in high-throughput screening
by Matthew Hall (NIH NCATS) and Wolfgang Fecke (EU-OPENSCREEN)

SESSION 3: DECEMBER 13th – 14:00 CET
Reproducibility in preclinical and animal experimentation
by Björn Gerlach (PAASP) and Michael Raess (INFRAFRONTIER)

SESSION 4: DECEMBER 17th – 14:00 CET
Preanalytical validation and quality systems in biobanking
by Monica Marchese (IBBL) and Andrea Wutte (BBMRI-ERIC)

SESSION 5: JANUARY 14th - 15:00 CET
Technology Platform reproducibility
by Weida Tong (NCTR/FDA) and Marian Hajduch (IMTM)

SESSION 6: FEBRUARY 18th – 14:00 CET
Quality and reproducibility issues related to clinical development
by Christine Toneatti (ECRIN)

EATRIS, the European infrastructure for translational medicine, has launched their own E-learning Platform: TRANSMED Academy.

TRANSMED Academy provides open access to online courses and webinars around drug development and translational research. Among the available courses, you can find “the Landscape of Translational Medicine”, an online course touching upon key aspects of translational research which has been especially designed for the next generation of translational scientists (PhDs, Postdocs and MDs). You are invited to visit TRANSMED Academy and share your experience with EATRIS.

EATRIS is hiring a Scientific Project Manager in the field of personalised medicine with experience in innovative biomedical product development and translational research. Find out more: https://bit.ly/2myxLO3

The Executive Masters in Management of Research Infrastructures is an international management development Programme tailored to the specific needs of Research Infrastructures. This Programme is designed to give experienced science professionals the skills and knowledge they need to take on greater managerial responsibilities. Take the opportunity to improve your managerial skills. More details: https://emmri.unimib.it/

What can this Executive Masters offer you?

• A global network of Research Infrastructure colleagues in similar leadership positions
• An international Faculty composed by dedicated professors and acclaimed experts from research infrastructures
• A better understanding of how Research Infrastructures in different countries are responding to common challenges
• Greater awareness of your leadership strengths and weaknesses
• Innovative ways to help your organisation become more effective.

It is now possible to apply for participation in the workshop 'Data Visualisation for Biology: A Practical Workshop on Design, Techniques and Tools', organised by EMBL-EBI in association with CORBEL:

Date: Monday 16 - Friday 20 March 2020

Venue: European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) - Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom

Application opens: Tuesday 10 September 2019

Application deadline: Friday 29 November 2019

More information: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/training/events/2020/data-visualisation-biology-practical-workshop-design-techniques-and-tools-1

As biological datasets increase in size and complexity, we are moving more and more from a hypothesis-driven research paradigm to a data-driven one. As a result, exploration of that data has become even more crucial than in the past.

In this 5-day course, we will dive into the topic of biological data visualisation and how it can be used to gain insight into and get a "feel" for a dataset, so that targeted analyses can be defined. We will start by covering theoretical questions such as: What is data visualisation? How do we perceive images? How can we visualise data in the best possible way? It will be delivered through a mixture of lectures and workshop sessions, and will also provide hands-on experience in developing visualisations. The course will focus on working with omics (e.g. genomics, transcriptomics) data rather than e.g. imaging data.

This course is targeted at biologists who want to explore and gain further insight into their own data through the use of visualisation and design approaches. People with different backgrounds and previous expertise in data visualisation are welcome to join the course. Some prior experience in programming would be beneficial, however participants will be divided into groups according to their programming experience for the hands-on element from day 3 onwards. Applicants will be asked to provide detail on their level of programming ability and knowledge of visualisation tools as part of the application process. Some pre-reading and exercises will additionally be sent out to successful applicants prior to the course, and these will also help us decide on the most appropriate groupings.

On 11 July 2019, EU-OPENSCREEN and Euro-BioImaging, two of the 13 research infrastructures (RIs) that are collaborating in CORBEL, signed a collaboration agreement in order to jointly support cutting-edge life science research in Europe. In signing this agreement, Euro-BioImaging and EU-OPENSCREEN acknowledge the value and importance of their own field of expertise being embedded in a larger scope of technologies and services offered by complementary life science RIs across Europe.

Within CORBEL, the two RIs were involved in the development of pipelines for combined service provision, which were evaluated by involving real user projects. By enabling several CORBEL user projects, EU-OPENSCREEN and Euro-BioImaging already demonstrated the feasibility and impact of cross-infrastructure user access and are now aiming at sustaining their achievements by the collaboration agreement. Harmonizing and facilitating user access across the life sciences RIs will increase the user community of the individual RIs, enable interdisciplinary research projects, and drive innovation and scientific progress.

The recording of the CORBEL webinar 'Towards a GDPR Code of Conduct for Health Research: where are we today?' (19 June 2019) is available online now!