The Global Biodata Coalition (GBC) is pleased to announce a second round of selection of Global Core Biodata Resources, that will run throughout 2023.

Global Core Biodata Resources (GCBRs) are deposition databases and knowledgebases of fundamental importance to the broad life science community and the long-term preservation of biological data. The first GCBR selection round, in 2022, resulted in 37 biodata resources being included in the initial GCBR list.

The purpose of this round of selection is to provide an opportunity for biodata resources which meet the GCBR criteria, but were not able to engage for the initial 2022 process, to participate during the early establishment of the GCBR list.

Background information and instructions for applicants can be found on the Global Core Biodata Resource Selection 2023 web page and in the paper “Global Core Biodata Resources: Concept and Selection Process”.

Expressions of interest will be accepted via an online submission system from 11 April–8 May 2023.

Questions can be addressed to .

The Global Biodata Coalition works on behalf of life sciences and biomedical research funders to better coordinate and share approaches for efficient management and growth of the biodata infrastructure and to stabilise and ensure sustainable financial support for the global biodata infrastructure. To this end, as well as running the GCBR selection process, the GBC is currently building a comprehensive global inventory of biodata resources to support further work addressing open access and sustainability of biodata resources.

The Global Biodata Coalition (GBC) has today announced the first list of Global Core Biodata Resources (GCBRs) — a collection of 37 resources whose long term funding and sustainability is critical to life science and biomedical research worldwide.

Researchers the world over rely on data resources to manage, curate and provide access to research data. These resources include deposition databases which archive and preserve primary research data, and knowledge bases which draw together and add value to these data through expert curation and annotation — enabling those data to be mined, combined and used to advance research.

Like keystone species in an ecosystem, GCBRs represent the most crucial components or nodes within the global life science data infrastructure, whose failure would have a critical impact on the global research endeavour. A key property of the GCBRs is that the data they hold is available openly and can be accessed and used without restriction by researchers the world over.

The GBC brings together major public and charitable funders, who are committed to work in partnership to develop more sustainable funding approaches to support biodata resources — many of which currently rely on short-term, unstable funding. 

This first set of GCBRs were selected through a rigorous two-stage process open to biodata resources globally (see Global Core Biodata Resources: Concept and Selection Process). More than 60 resources submitted expressions of interest, for which it was necessary that they met several eligibility criteria. At each stage of the selection process, the candidate biodata resources were assessed by a panel of more than 50 independent expert reviewers against a series of criteria that included their scientific focus, the size and reach of their user communities, their quality of service, their governance, and their impact on global research.

The GBC’s partner funders will now actively work with the community of GCBRs to explore funding models that ensure these biodata resources are able to develop and sustain the critical services they provide to the global research community.

It is envisaged that the list of GCBRs will grow and develop over time, and there will be further opportunities for resources to apply to be considered for GCBR status over the coming years.

Warwick Anderson, Chair of the GBC Board of Funders, said, “We were delighted by the response to the first call for Global Core Biodata Resources. Thank you to all resources who applied and to the reviewers who gave their time and expertise so generously. The quality and breadth of this list highlights the critical importance of GBC’s mission to ensure these fundamental resources receive long-term sustainable funding”.

Guy Cochrane, Executive Director of the GBC, said, “The announcement of the list will enable funders and biodata resources to come together to co-develop sustainability models that meet their needs, and ensure that these data resources are able to continue to support the global research community”.

Eric Green, Director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute and GBC Board Member said, “Selecting this first set of GCBRs is an important step for better understanding the broader ecosystem of data resources that are vital to life science and biomedical research. It also represents a starting point for enhanced discussions with various research communities and their funders about how best to ensure the long-term sustainability of vital biodata resources.”

The Global Biodata Coalition’s international Scientific Advisory Committee held its first in-person meeting in Strasbourg on 27-28 June 2022.

Over two days of lively and productive discussions, Committee members considered how the GBC could best strengthen and focus its activities to fulfil its missions to bring together funders of biodata resources and to ensure sustainable financial support for the global biodata infrastructure.

Based on its discussions, the Committee will report its advice to the GBC’s Board of Funders and this will form a key input in helping to shape the strategy and priorities.

We are enormously grateful to Committee members for giving their time so generously to participate in the meeting, and for engaging so actively in the discussions. Thanks also to our partners at the Human Frontier Science Program Organization for hosting the meeting.

The GBC’s Scientific Advisory Committee brings together leading experts in biodata resource experts from across five continents. It provides expert advice to GBC’s Board of Funders and Executive Director to guide our strategy and activities. It also helps to inform us of key emerging developments and trends in the international landscape.

See the governance pages for more details.

The Global Biodata Coalition (GBC) is pleased to announce the appointment of its founding Executive Director, Dr Guy Cochrane, after an extensive global search.

The GBC is a coalition of life sciences and biomedical research funders that aims to optimize the funding and management of biodata resources worldwide. The GBC has two priority aims: to better coordinate and share approaches for efficient management and growth of the biodata infrastructure, and to stabilize and ensure sustainable financial support for the global biodata infrastructure.

GBC is building a global inventory of biodata resources, addressing open access and sustainability, and will soon designate the first set of Global Core Biodata Resources that will inform discussions between funders on how to sustain key biological data globally.

Guy Cochrane is currently Team Leader for Data Coordination and Archiving and Head of the European Nucleotide Archive at the EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). With this new appointment, Dr Cochrane’s time will be shared between his role at the EMBL-EBI and the GBC.

Dr Cochrane has over two decades of experience working with and leading biodata resources. In his role as leader of the European node of the long-standing International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration, Dr. Cochrane is an authority on large-scale international sequence data sharing. Dr. Cochrane led the adaptation and extension of the European Nucleotide Archive for the purposes of rapid global pathogen data sharing, which is the foundation for the European COVID-19 Data Platform that Dr. Cochrane also leads. Dr Cochrane has an impressive record of attracting funding for biodata resources, working with research funders, and managing international collaborations to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the global biodata resource infrastructure.

“We are delighted that Dr Cochrane is joining the GBC,” said Prof Warwick Anderson, Transitional Chair of the GBC Board of Funders and previously Secretary-General, Human Frontier Science Program Organization. “His expertise and extensive work with biodata resources will provide strong leadership to the GBC as we move into this next exciting phase of development”.

Dr Eric Green, Director of the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute and GBC co-convenor, added, “We look forward to working with Dr. Cochrane as GBC’s first Executive Director. He has already worked productively with numerous research funders and biodata resources worldwide in efforts to pave the way towards sustained support for the global biodata ecosystem.”

Dr Cochrane joins the GBC at an exciting time. Specifically, the GBC’s scientific activities (https://globalbiodata.org/scientific-activities/) have begun, with work on developing the Global Inventory of Biodata Resources in progress as well as the opening of the process to select the initial set Global Core Biodata Resources.

“I am excited at this opportunity to lead the Global Biodata Coalition in its work to aid global research funders in support of the global biodata infrastructure, which is facing unprecedented growth amidst very modest increases in funding for biodata resources,” said Dr Cochrane.

Exponential increases in data production pose tremendous challenges to managing life sciences and biomedical data globally. The GBC joins other international organizations, such as the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health and the International HundredK+ Cohorts Consortium, in aiding funders and stakeholders to address these challenges to ensure long-term support and sustainability for this crucial research infrastructure.

The Global Biodata Coalition is now welcoming Expressions of Interest for the first Global Core Biodata Resource selection process.

The two-stage selection process will aim to identify a set of core biodata resources, which are of fundamental importance to researchers worldwide across the biological, life science and biomedical science domains.

The call for Expressions of Interest is open from 21 March to 22 April 2022 (at 23:59 UTC). It is open to biodata resources (or consortia of resources) from anywhere in the world that would like to be considered for selection as a Global Core Biodata Resource.

Biodata resources that meet the criteria for selection will be invited to submit a full application, with the first set of Global Core Biodata Resources due to be finalised in late 2022. Decisions will be based on the advice of a global panel of independent expert reviewers.

The identification of an initial set of core resources will be crucially important in enabling funders to develop ways to better coordinate support for key biodata resources and ensure the long-term sustainability of the entire global biodata infrastructure.

Further information on the selection process is available on the GBC website and in the paper “Global Core Biodata Resources: Concept and Selection Process”, which we published in January 2022.

The Global Biodata Coalition (GBC) is pleased to announce that the information about the selection process to define the initial list of Global Core Biodata Resources has now been published. Background information and instructions for applicants can be found on the Global Core Biodata Resource Selection web page and in the paper “Global Core Biodata Resources: Concept and Selection Process”.

Expressions of interest will be accepted via an online submission system from 21March to 22 April 2022. Questions can be addressed to .

The Global Biodata Coalition works on behalf of life sciences and biomedical research funders to better coordinate and share approaches for efficient management and growth of the biodata infrastructure and to stabilize and ensure sustainable financial support for the global biodata infrastructure. To this end, as well as selecting the first set of Global Core Biodata Resources, the GBC is currently building a comprehensive global inventory of biodata resources to support further work addressing open access and sustainability of biodata resources.