UK biotechnology investment

The

has made its first substantial commitment to a major emerging pan-European science project with a £10m investment by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

The BBSRC has awarded funding to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), based at Hinxton near Cambridge, to help it significantly increase its data storage and handling capacity.

The funding is the first step in developing the existing data resources and IT infrastructure of EMBL-EBI towards its planned role as the central hub of the emerging European Life-Science Infrastructure for Biological Information (ELIXIR).

Modern bioscience research generates vast quantities of data. To use the data efficiently and to accelerate bioscience advances, such as the development of drugs and therapies or higher yielding crops, scientists require better ways to deal with this avalanche of information.

ELIXIR is an initiative involving 32 partners from 13 countries aimed at establishing a sustainably funded infrastructure for biological information in Europe. It will support life-science research and its applications to medicine, agriculture and food security, the environment, the bio-industries and society.