This grant, provided by the Department of Economy, Science and Innovation of the Flemish government (EWI), has the goal to start building the Belgian ELIXIR node. This will be achieved by: 1) the establishment of the collaboration agreement between the ELIXIR Belgium lead institute (VIB) and the Belgian partners, and the ELIXIR collaboration agreement with the ELIXIR Hub, 2) the development of the ELIXIR Belgium website, 3) the organisation of a kick-off meeting to officially present ELIXIR Belgium, 4) the organisation of focussed meetings to bring together specific communities or expertise, and 5) supporting the integration of more research groups into ELIXIR.