D2.1: Database Provider Survey report for ELIXIR Work Package 2

Biological data resources are the foundation on which research and applications in the life sciences increasingly depend. It has become clear that criteria are needed for judging the necessary support model for these resources. Such criteria are also essential for the purposes of comparison for example between core resources, which aim for completeness, are standardised and universally used against specialist resources, which serve a more limited community, but are nevertheless of vey high value. Currently core resources usually receive their major funding through European or international support, although they may also receive some national funding. In contrast specialist resources are usually funded nationally, normally from research funds, or through small Commission grants to establish them, but not to maintain them. Some of these specialist resources merit longer term support and closer network integration with the core resources. There is therefore a pressing need for criteria both for prioritising established investments as well as starting new ones.
Core biomolecular resources in Europe include those for nucleotide sequences and genomes, protein sequences, protein structures, protein-protein interactions and expression data. These data resources are mainly based at EBI, though several involve major collaborations with partners elsewhere in Europe (e.g. the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics). In contrast, specialist data resources are widely distributed and are complementary to the core databases. As a key component of WP2 the Database Providers Survey was conceived to assess, in the most comprehensive way we could manage, the status quo across biomolecular databases in Europe. The survey was designed to gather information about content, operational details, standards, usage, funding, team size, and sustainability. The provision of this information both qualitatively and quantitatively where possible is crucial to inform future ELIXIR planning and to help define processes associated with long term funding, e.g. the possible transitions of selected databases from non-core to core.