The European Bioinformatics Institute said this week that France has agreed to participate in the European Life-science Infrastructure for Biological Information, or ELIXIR, project and signed the memorandum of understanding, which formally commits signatories to support the development of the bioinformatics infrastructure.
EBI said that the French National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS, signed the MOU on behalf of France, representing themselves; the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission; the National Institute of Agronomic Research; the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control; and the French Institute of Health and Medical Research.
The EBI also said that France has applied to have the French Institute of Bioinformatics, or IFB, national infrastructure set up by the French bioinformatics community, serve as the country's ELIXIR node. The application will be reviewed by the ELIXIRScientific Advisory Board in December 2013 and put to the ELIXIR Interim Board for final approval in April 2014.
Other ELIXIR contributors include Greece, Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.