Today, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced a £34 million investment in a ground-breaking project, BioFAIR, to establish a cohesive, UK-wide digital research infrastructure that bridges current gaps between researchers, digital research, and technical professionals (including data scientists, research software engineers and data stewards), existing institutional digital research infrastructures, and the funder-community partnership.

“BioFAIR is also a collaborative environment essential to support more effective dissemination of research data management knowledge and skills across the life sciences research community, at local, national and international level”

says Prof. Susanna-Assunta Sansone, Oxford e-Research Centre Director, Professor of Data Readiness, Academic Lead of Research Practice for the University, and member of the ELIXIR-UK Management Group.

BioFAIR exemplifies the transformative impact that can be achieved when major UK funders work in partnership with the research community. The concept was initially proposed by the ELIXIR-UK community, which the Centre’s Data Readiness Group is acore part of. The BioFAIR feasibility report, co-authored by Prof. Sansone, received crucial support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Medical Research Council from the outset, paving the way for this bold project.

BioFAIR will be a catalyst for innovation and discovery, and over its five-year life span it will:

• Accelerate the adoption of findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) data principles across the UK life sciences, making it more useful and valuable to researchers than ever before
• Unify the UK’s currently fragmented digital research landscape, fostering unprecedented opportunities for collaboration and coordination among the national life sciences community
• Break down barriers to democratise data accessibility, giving UK researchers the resources and autonomy needed for innovation and discovery to flourish
• Coordinate and deliver extensive training and support for practitioners at all levels, building critical workforce capacity and securing the UK’s position as a global leader in life sciences.

Find out more

• To learn more about BioFAIR, read the Official press release or visit the BioFAIR website
• University of Oxford Data Readiness Group