Strengthening global biodata sustainability: Australia joins international advisory leadership
Australian BioCommons Director, Dr Jeff Christiansen, has been appointed to the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of the Global Biodata Coalition (GBC). In this international role, he will work alongside global data experts to guide strategic approaches for funding and sustaining the critical digital infrastructure that underpins modern life science research.
Securing the digital foundation of life sciences
Biological, biomedical, agricultural and environmental research relies heavily on open-access global data repositories - from sequence archives to protein structure knowledgebases.
In addition to underpinning human scientific endeavour for many decades, these highly curated, high quality resources are now also enabling ground breaking AI-tools like AlphaFold to be developed. However, sustaining these data resources long-term remains a systemic challenge worldwide, as many repositories depend on short-term competitive grants or localised funding streams.
The GBC convenes major research funding agencies from around the world to address this fragility - including Wellcome (UK), National Institutes of Health (USA), National Science Foundation (USA), State Secretariat for Education Research & Innovation SERI (Switzerland), United Kingdom Research & Innovation, Research Council of Norway, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (USA), Genome Canada, European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the African Academy of Sciences.
By building shared frameworks and identifying Global Core Biodata Resources (GCBRs), the GBC works to ensure that primary scientific data assets remain freely available, stable, and protected against shifts in national budgets.
The GBC recently entered a major expansion phase supported by Horizon Europe funding and hosted by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory - European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI).
Bringing an Australian perspective to global governance
The GBC Scientific Advisory Committee provides independent expert advice directly to the GBC Board of Funders and Secretariat on scientific priorities, computational trends, and international infrastructure alignment. Members are invited as independent global experts to help guide sustainability strategies across life science domains.
Australian research relies heavily on core international repositories, with our researchers submitting millions of requests per year to databases hosted at EMBL-EBI alone. This demand will only increase as digital infrastructure, data stewardship and AI become more central to research. The Australian Government’s strategic financial contribution through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) towards Australia’s associate membership in EMBL helps sustain the core infrastructure supporting these repositories, demonstrating the principle of global co-investment advocated by the GBC. Further NCRIS investment via Bioplatforms Australia and others into activities such as Australian BioCommons, and EMBL Australia, also ensures that domestic researchers can better access, utilise and submit data to these worldwide repositories.
"Sustaining global data resources is vital for the entire biological scientific enterprise. Having participated in GBC’s Global Core Biodata Resource selection panels over recent years, I am honoured to now join the Scientific Advisory Committee. I look forward to bringing both an Australian and international digital infrastructure perspective to help shape stable, long-term funding models for these foundational resources." - Jeff Christiansen. Director, Australian BioCommons
Heading to Cambridge for GBC26
In October 2026, Jeff will travel to Cambridge, UK, to participate in in-person SAC meetings and a joint summit with the GBC Board of Funders.
He will also represent Australian BioCommons at the inaugural Global Biodata Conference (GBC26) on 7-8 October. This conference brings together international funders, database managers, and computational biology leaders to explore pooled funding models, public-private partnerships, and strategies to broaden infrastructure participation across low- and middle-income countries.
To learn more about the coalition’s mission and Global Core Biodata Resources, visit the Global Biodata Coalition website.
Explore how Australian BioCommons engages internationally via our Collaborations page.
