Strategic Importance of ELIXIR A perspective from the UK

1. Strategic Importance of ELIXIR A perspective from the UK Professor Doug Kell CEO, BBSRC

2. UK Research Councils UK Government Department of Business, Innovation and Skills

3. UK Research Councils (RCUK) - missionsBBSRC leads UK coordination for ELIXIR on behalf of all 3 sponsoring Research Councils (and in liaison with Wellcome Trust) UK Government’s principal funder of basic and strategic biological research Promote research into all areas of medical and related science with the aims of improving the health and quality of life of the UK public and contributing to the wealth of the nation To gather and apply knowledge, improve understanding and predict the behaviour of the natural environment and its resources

4. UK leads the world in Biosciences Times Higher Education, 10th June 2010 • UK is ranked 1st in 7 scientific areas • …of which 6 are flavours of Bioscience, and all other biology is a close 2nd

5. Westerhoff & Palsson NBT 22, 1249-52 (2004) Research evolution ‘molecular’ Multi-/inter- disciplinary ARPANET 1973 WEB 2.0/ Semantic Web 2000s ‘numerical’ WEB 1.0 1990s Google 1998 Microsoft 1970s

6. Data Rich ScienceNeed for data management and multidisciplinary approaches

7. “Biological discovery is increasingly being driven by disruptive technologies that generate massive and complex datasets. A new generation of ‘biologist friendly’ ICT solutions are required to underpin our future world-class bioscience research.”

8. Information Age Total number of scientific papers added to Medline per year H1N1 Outbreak Smith, Nature 2009 Rohr, Nature 2008

9. Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 Exploiting new ways of working • Innovative ways of working in an era of rapid technology change, the next generation internet, and quantitative and computational bioscience • Bioscience IS big data science • New tools and facilities • Data rich bioscience • Standards • Sharing • interoperability • Systems biology

10. Growth of disk storage at EMBL-EBI

11. Data-intensive science A qualitative change in science

12. Current Model Scientist / User Sequencing Centre Storage High-Performanance Cluster Sequencing Instrument Sequencing Instrument Sequencing Instrument ACGTTTCCC…. ACGTTTCCC…. ACGTTTCCC…. Storage Download Public Repository Multi Peta-byte High-Performanance storage Submission Courtesy Mario Caccamo, TGAC

13. Sequencing Node Sequencing Instrument Sequencing Instrument Sequencing Instrument VM test enviromemt ACGTTTCCC…. ACGTTTCCC…. ACGTTTCCC…. Staging Storage LIMS Metadata Primary Analysis QA Assemblies Analysis Output User Cloud infrastructure Multi Peta-byte High-Performanance storage High-Performanance Cluster Analysis Submission Virtual Machine Pool Courtesy Mario Caccamo, TGAC

14. Challenges and activities

15. ….never before have researchers been able to address such a breadth and depth of biological questions…. BBSRC Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 The Age of Bioscience Driven by new tools and technologies

16. Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 Three major research priorities Bioenergy and Industrial Biotechnology Food Security Basic bioscience underpinning health

17. Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 World-class bioscience Three major research priorities Three crucial underpinning themes

18. BBSRC Strategic Plan 2010-2015

19. Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 World-class bioscience Facilities Quality Skills

20. Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 Three crucial underpinning themes Knowledge exchange, innovation and skills Exploiting new ways of working Partnerships

21. Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 Knowledge exchange, innovation and skills • Ensuring that our world-class science and skilled people have maximum impact • Boosting the UK economy, connecting to policy and improving quality of life. • Skills and capabilities • KE and translation • Promoting innovation • Culture change

22. Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 Exploiting new ways of working • Innovative ways of working in an era of rapid technology change, the next generation internet, and quantitative and computational bioscience • Bioscience IS big data science • New tools and facilities • Data rich bioscience • Standards • Sharing • interoperability • Systems biology

23. Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 Partnerships • Working with our many stakeholders and other funders, nationally and internationally, to deliver our exciting vision for UK bioscience • Collaborative funding • Enhancing impact • Engaging society • International links

24. Exponential growth in data… Cannot equate to exponential growth in funding, so • Link budgets for data generation and data processing • Only produce as much data as you can deal with • Take steps to control IT resource requirements. • Develop policies for which data are to be kept (& which not) • Develop data compression techniques • Take steps to ensure joint solutions to provide value. • Identify and pursue options for coordinated data infrastructure provision. • Focus on translation of information, knowledge and expertise between academic and commercial sectors

25. UK Large Facilities Capital Fund

26. Overview of UK Large Facilities Capital Fund • Fund covers major Capital projects across all Research Councils • Prioritisation process every 2 years - Current exercise ongoing • Projects listed in RCUK Large Facilities Roadmap – renewed in 2010 • Future of LFCF to be reviewed as part of the Government-wide Comprehensive Spending Review

27. Major UK Capital Investments in HTP Sequencing Capacity… EMBL-EBI Technical Hub & Data Capacity BBSRC The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich Other significant investments (genomics, and systems biology) MRC Four HTP Sequencing Hubs NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility & Environmental Bioinformatics Centres The Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre …best supported by centralised data capability

28. LFCF Proposal for UK, set within Europe. • LFCF support meets ongoing UK obligations to support of EBI facilities as host country. • Size of LFCF request for data facility derived from anticipated UK requirements. • LFCF funding would also provide UK contribution to ELIXIR project.

29. Key Drivers for this proposal • To maintain high-quality service for fast-expanding user base • To serve academia & industry • To position the UK to derive maximum benefits from modern biological, medical and environmental research. • To fulfil UK requirements for data storage & handling, while anticipating wider European participation. • To drive discovery research in UK through worldwide data • To help secure ongoing European Support for ELIXIR • To provide support for UK & European Industry • E.g. Pharma actively seeking strong public–private partnerships to utilise and enhance public data resources for pre-competitive drug discovery. • Costs to industry users of server downtime estimated at € 1.3M per day

30. Request to UK Large Facilities Capital Fund Data Centre • Phase 1 for 2010-2015 (£10M) already supportedvia BIS allocation to BBSRC • Phase 2 for 2011-2020 (£51M ) • Flexible plan for growth of compute and storage • Provides robust (24/7) data provision and support for users meeting recognised commercial standards Technical Hub • Biological Information Services in Europe - from 2012 (£24M) • Accommodation for 200 people (inc EMBL Staff and visiting researchers) • Training facilities for academia • Industry liaison suite • Potential European ELIXIR Secretariat

31. Key perceived benefits of centralised LFCF investment Delivery of a comprehensive, universal and integrated suite of biomolecular and related databases to an ever widening range of users Improved ability in understanding the molecular basis of life (including the Human Genome and Human Genetic Variation) and its influence on disease, nutrition, and well being. Continued and improved support for pharma and biotech companies and life sciences SMEs to remain competitive through provision of access to world class bioinformatics resources, training courses and industry programmes. Support for close collaboration between academia and industry, fostering better translation of research discoveries into industry and clinic. Improvements in pharmaceuticals for humans and animals, more insightful crop breeding, new developments in nutraceuticals and consumer products, the use of DNA fingerprinting in forensics and many many more.

32. Pharma Target Validation • Disease resistant farm animals and crops • Novel vaccines and diagnostics • Personalised prognostics and therapeutics • Supporting SMEs • Ageing Research; • Climate Change; • Food Security/Agriculture; • Combating Infectious Diseases; • Systems Biology; • Translation to Clinical Research • Enhancing Interdisciplinarity Promoting Economic Return Research Council Priorities Enhancing Value Benefits Added value from data collectionsthrough greater integration/avoiding duplication. • Realising ELIXIR • International Collaborations • European Grand Challenges • Improved sustainability of HEIs and Institutes • Enhance exploitation of data • Leverage of inward investment Realising Potential of Bioinformatics Resources

33. Public Research Data Collections Industrial Data Collections Data Storage and Integration Including: Pharma Agribiotech SMEs Resilient and Robust Data Capability Data analysis tools Training and Workshops The Virtuous Circle – Positive Feedback Including: HTS Centres Genomics & Systems Biology Investments Other data generators at HEIs and Institutes

34. Strategic Importance of ELIXIRA perspective from the UK Professor Doug Kell CEO, BBSRC