Romania joins ELIXIR as Observer

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Romania has become an Observer in ELIXIR, following approval by the ELIXIR Board on October 30, 2023.

This Observer status allows the Romanian bioinformatics community to engage more closely with other ELIXIR Nodes and paves the way for full ELIXIR Membership in the coming years. ELIXIR currently includes 22 full member countries and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), with Cyprus and Austria also holding Observer status.

ELIXIR Nodes connect national organizations that provide bioinformatics services, such as universities and research institutes. The Romanian Node will be centered around the institutes involved in the Romanian Society for Bioinformatics (RSBI) and the recently established Romanian Bioinformatics Cluster (CRB).

In recent years, collaborations between existing ELIXIR Nodes and the Romanian community have strengthened, particularly in human genomic data, with the Norwegian government funding a collaborative capacity-building project.

Viorel Vulturescu, Director of International and European Relations at the Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation, stated, "Developing a national data infrastructure for sensitive human data remains a priority for Romania, and connecting this with efforts across Europe through our involvement in ELIXIR will benefit both Romania and beyond."

Niklas Blomberg, ELIXIR Director, expressed, "We are delighted to welcome Romania into ELIXIR and look forward to working with the Romanian community, building connections that will lead to full membership and integration into the larger European infrastructure."