Biobanking and the EU

Research infrastructure

According to the European Commission  (see here), the ability of Europe's research teams to remain at the forefront of all fields of science and technology depends on their being supported by state-of-the-art infrastructures. The term "research infrastructures" refers to facilities and resources that provide essential services to the research community in both academic and/or industrial domains.

Research infrastructures may be
•    "single-sited" (single resource at a single location)
•    "distributed" (a network of distributed resources, including infrastructures based on Grid-type architectures)
•    "virtual" (the service being provided electronically).

The Commission’s objective is to promote the development of a fabric of research infrastructures of the highest quality and performance in Europe, and their optimum use on a European scale based on the needs expressed by the research community.

Dozens of research infrastructures across the natural and social sciences are now being funded for their preparatory phase by the Commission. In each case, researchers from different EU Member States are working together to solve the planning problems ahead of the construction phase.

Biomedical research infrastructures

In the biomedical field, six projects are at this planning stage. More are in the pipeline.

Research infrastructures are being planned for
•    the management of biomedical resources (BBMRI)
•    the management of biological data (ELIXIR)
•    structural biology facilities (INSTRUCT)
•    the management of mouse resources (INFRAFRONTIER)
•    clinical trials (ECRIN)
•    translational medicine (EATRIS)

Biobanking research infrastructure

Planning for a European biobanking network is the task of the Biobanking and BioMolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI) preparatory phase . The €5m initiative is laying the groundwork for this network. It is addressing the technical, legal and financial issues that must be resolved for a sustainable and effective network to be built.

Construction of the network will then proceed so that researchers will be able to work together to design and implement studies and analyse data using the extensive biomedical research resources that already exist across the EU as well as designing and implementing studies with newly generated resources.

This major initiative has the potential to address today's daunting research challenges in genetic epidemiology and in the development of new medicines. Membership of BBMRI can be obtained by clicking here.