Making container services integratable, sustainable and widely used

31 May 2021 - 30 May 2023

The aim of this new strategic implementation study (SIS) is to build on the current progress made through the ongoing implementation study, enabling the adoption and deployment of protocols and services by the broader ELIXIR community at scale.

The first SIS Containers study (2019-2021) has successfully convened and established a growing ELIXIR wide consensus on high-level community-driven service needs and related standards including:

  • Software containers registry service (Biocontainers, GA4GH TRS )
  • WorkflowHub registry service (GA4GH TRS)
  • Key Preferred workflows management systems (Galaxy, GA4GH WES).
  • Task orchestration services (e.g. the Pulsar Network, GA4GH TES) 
  • Data repository service (GA4GH DRS)

The ongoing study also engaged with 5 communities/use cases to ensure the standards being developed were able to be adopted by the different use cases and highlight potential bottlenecks and risks to adoption. Hence as stated, the aim of this new study is to build on the current progress and ensure adoption and deployment of these protocols and services by the broader ELIXIR community at scale and to establish plans for sustainability.

The work is divided across four work-packages:

  •  WP1 focuses on fostering community and user engagement across ELIXIR through the initiation of two open-calls for self-funded use-cases. 
  • WP2 focuses on support for users from ELIXIR Communities and Focus Groups by organising documentation of supported ELIXIR services so aiding in the identification and application of use cases. 
  • WP3 focuses on technical support for providers to roll out production services in alignment with ELIXIR and EOSC standards. 
  • WP4 will specifically address the services which will be needed to ensure the sustainability of the service portfolio assembled in this study.

The present study is participated in by thirteen ELIXIR Nodes: ELIXIR Belgium (Frederik Coppens, Ignacio Eguinoa, Bert Droesbeke), ELIXIR Switzerland, ELIXIR Czech, ELIXIR Germany, ELIXIR Denmark, EMBL-EBI, ELIXIR Spain, ELIXIR Italy, ELIXIR Finland, ELIXIR France, ELIXIR Greece, ELIXIR The Netherlands, and ELIXIR UK.