With this grant, awarded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), we have the ambitious goal of building a truly integrated community of bioinformatics infrastructure. Therefore, we focus on collaboration with national (e.g. dmponline.be, VSC) and international (ELIXIR Communities, Galaxy, FAIRDOM, …) consortia and initiatives.

More specifically, we will be active in the field of data management, data analysis platforms, Node Services and training. We will lay the foundations to become the expertise centre for life-sciences Research Data Management. Building on internationally developed tools, such as DMPonline and FAIRDOM, we will provide practical solutions for Flemish researchers to make their data more FAIR. In collaboration with the Flemish Supercomputer Center (VSC), we will provide access to data analysis platforms (e.g. Galaxy and container based systems) to empower all life-science researchers, regardless of their technical computer science knowledge.

Building on the tools and resources developed by our partners -  the Node Services, we will further extend their functionality and compatibility. This will facilitate the integration of these services with other relevant ELIXIR resources and services, and provide a close connection with the user base ensuring relevant developments for the researchers.

With our training platform, we will catalyse and support the (self-) training of researchers (Dodona), set the scene for more intensive international collaborations, and increase the impact of ELIXIR Belgium services.