BioFAIR: a new BioCommons infrastructure for UK life science

ELIXIR is an intergovernmental organisation that integrates and develops life science resources across Europe to form a single infrastructure. ELIXIR-UK is the UK Node of ELIXIR, and it is in turn made up of 23 member organisations based throughout the UK. It contributes more than 30 services to the ELIXIR portfolio, and is particularly active in projects about FAIR data and Research Data Management (RDM), like the ELIXIR-UK DaSH Fellowship.

In 2021 a study led by ELIXIR-UK identified the RDM needs of UK bioscience researchers and evaluated the feasibility and impact of the creation of a new UK Institute delivering a FAIR Data and Method BioCommons, called BioFAIR. Here we describe its high-level structure, and the proposed components and services for the UK life science researchers.