Our first newsletter of 2021 is out. In addition to achievements in 2020, we report on a few upcoming meetings including the Galaxy Community Conference we are co-organising this year.
The new year brings our first video! The video gives a walkthrough on how to upload SARS-CoV-2 sequence data and its metadata to the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) using our newly developed Galaxy tool. All details can also be found on our data management website https://rdm.elixir-belgium.org/covid-19.
One of the key objectives of the Belgian ELIXIR node is to build data management and data analysis infrastructure for life-sciences. In collaboration with the Galaxy Core Team and the ELIXIR Galaxy Community, we developed the useGalaxy.be instance which has been released for public use in 2019. To further implement specific data analysis workflows and use cases, we are looking for a Research Software Engineer. Apply here to become our new colleague.
The diverse and multiple activities in ELIXIR Belgium require efficient and clear communication and sustainable outreach towards the life sciences community. To further optimise and extend this, we have an open vacancy for a Communications and Community Outreach Officer. Apply here to join our team.
We have developed, in collaboration with ELIXIR Germany and the European COVID-19 Data Platform, a tool to simplify the submission of viral sequencing data to the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), a resource providing open access to nucleotide sequences. The submission tool offers an easy-to-use interface, guides researchers through the submission process and verifies the data format and description.
Submitting data to deposition databases requires a learning curve and can therefore be time consuming at the first submission. Our team developed an ENA upload tool to facilitate submission of viral sequence data to ENA.
One of our key tasks is to build a data management and data analysis infrastructure for life sciences research. For data management, we are building on the FAIRDOMhub open source platform. The Belgian instance of fairdomhub.be is in full development and will allow researchers to manage their research data and produce FAIR data by design. To enforce our data management team, we have an open position for Data Management Usability Officer. Apply here
The department Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI) and the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) have joined forces to make an overview of large-scale and international research infrastructures in which they have invested over the last 10 years. ELIXIR Belgium to be found on pages 32-33.
We have opened the second call for ELIXIR Belgium Node Services and invite our partner institutes (UGent, KULeuven, VUB, ULB, UAntwerpen, UHasselt, VIB, ULiège and Sciensano) to apply for one or more Node Services.
On April 2nd, we lost James Taylor, co-founder of Galaxy, mentor, friend and inspiration.
