Exchanging ideas with European research infrastructures at ELIXIR All Hands
L-R: Jo Wingender, Tiff Nelson, Melissa Burke, Jess Holliday, Flora Foltanyi, Andy Smith
Key members of the Australian BioCommons team travelled to the ELIXIR All Hands meeting in June to share our insights in building and sustaining distributed life science data infrastructure with European peers. Each year, three staff represent Australia’s activities to more than 500 professionals from over 25 countries. Participants share their successes and seek ways to collaboratively address ongoing challenges facing life science research infrastructures.
ELIXIR, as Europe’s life science research infrastructure, has a mission that is closely aligned with that of Australian BioCommons, and we have maintained a collaboration strategy since 2020. With ongoing face to face interactions a key component of the strategy, Australian BioCommons was well represented at the 2026 All Hands meeting with Dr Melissa Burke, Dr Tiff Nelson, and Jess Holliday attending in Lyon, France.
Immersion in the international life science research infrastructure landscape offered insights across the board, from the technical to the policy level. The opportunity to connect with colleagues in person benefits our normal late-night online meetings across time zones differences, making collaboration across borders possible, more fun and ultimately more successful.
Training Manager, Melissa, reflected, “Collaboration and ‘people infrastructure’ was a standout theme of the meeting. Keynote presentations, symposia and workshops showcased how the networks and collaborations established by ELIXIR are driving cross-border tech solutions like AI factories and federated healthcare data, and influencing European Open Science policy. Investing in people infrastructure by developing research infrastructure staff was noted as key to long term sustainability and strength.”
With the GUARDIANS program entrusted with building national-scale capabilities to support biomedical research using sensitive human omics data, Human Genome Informatics Program Manager, Jess, was keen to hear how international peers are tackling aligned challenges. The opportunities to exchange ideas with the experts gathered from many countries did not disappoint, and Jess returned with nuanced insights into complex national collaborations.
Community Engagement Lead, Tiff, led a workshop to collectively examine current practices and identify opportunities for improving engaging user communities for better services: Building and Operating Fit-for-purpose Services and Platforms through Collaborative User Engagement. It was a wonderful opportunity to highlight the importance of scientific community engagement and showcase the widely-respected process that BioCommons undertakes to build valuable services for life scientists. Tiff was excited to see new tools that have been developed for ELIXIR communities and looks forward to sharing what she’s learnt with Australian researchers.