The annual ELIXIR Bioinformatics Industry Forum is a one-day event that brings together bioinformaticians and technical specialists to explore solutions to major challenges in the data-driven life science sector. 

This year’s Forum theme is "Trusted research environments for sensitive data in the life sciences". The programme features a variety of presentations from industry and academia, offering the participants a chance to learn more about relevant initiatives and research breakthroughs in the area of TREs. The forum aims to stimulate discussions among solution providers and enable potential collaborations.

        08:30

            Registrations and welcome coffee
            First floor-south wing



        09:30 - 9:40

            Welcome to the event by ELIXIR (Despoina Sousoni) & EMBL-EBI (Matthew Hall)



        9:40- 11:00

            Session 1: How partnerships can help us tackle big challenges and seize big opportunities in Trusted Research Environments for sensitive and restricted data

            The session will feature presentations from different initiatives and organisations that are working on developing and using Trusted Research Environments, and share their experiences in building collaborative efforts to achieve big goals and challenging tasks in this domain.
            Part one: ELIXIR Introduction by Harald Wagener, Juan Arenas, Peter Maccallum

            10min presentations, 10min common Q&A

            Part two Speakers:

                BBMRI-ERIC (Radovan Tomašík): Federated Platform - Data querying and analysis
                Norwegian Trusted Research Environment (NORTRE) (Gard Thomassen): How a multi-tenant TRE infrastructure serves research projects, biobanks, clinics and SMEs at the same time
                HDR UK (Emily Jefferson): Examples of partnership models to tackle the big challenges and seize big opportunities in TREs: data discovery, federated analytics, reference TRE implementations and standards


            10min presentations, 10min common Q&A



        11:00 - 11:30

            Coffee break



        11:30 - 13:00

            Session 2: Technical solutions for enabling data access and analysis in Trusted Research Environments for life sciences

            The presentations will showcase the benefits of the service and identify the current gaps/challenges for advancing the application. This aims to trigger discussions among solution providers and foster potential collaborations.

            10min each presentation, 10min common Q&A

            Part one

                Intel (Markus Leberecht): Confidential Computing in Bioinformatics and Healthcare
                Amazon (James Grant): Trusted Research: A perspective
                Zetta Genomics (Marta Bleda): Technical solutions for enabling data access and analysis in Trusted Research Environments for life sciences

Part two

                ITTM (Andreas Kremer): Data Services for Real World Data
                BC platforms (Paul Smith & Philip Quinlan): TRE for sharing Data in Life Sciences
                Unison (Rory Popert): Solving the cross-Biobank data heterogeneity problem, a novel machine learning empowered approach
                Daset Labs (Guy Hill): Challenges of bringing datasets together to form valuable resources




        13:00 - 14:00

            Lunch break



        14:00 - 14:45

            Panel discussion on Interoperability, privacy, and sustainability in Trusted Research Environments for life sciences: challenges and opportunities for innovation

            The panel discussion will explore how to address the issues of interoperability and reusability of solutions, privacy and ethics, commercial use of data, management and governance challenges, and rewarding systems in Trusted Research Environments for life sciences.

            Panellists:


                Oxford University (Andrzej Rys)
                The Hyve (Wouter Franke)
                IQVIA (Ricarda Gaentzsch )
                Genomics England (Kate Witkowska​​​​)
                Centre for Genomic Regulation (Jordi Rambla​​​​)




        14:40 - 16:55

            Round-table discussions

            3-min Flash talk introductory presentations of the topics

            Two rounds of 40 min discussions


                Security of data-in-use in federated environments (Pavel Nikonorov from GenxT &  Michael Bursell from Confidential Computing Consortium)
                Serverless Cloud Data Processing: Private, FAIR, and Federated (Jonas De Almeida from NIH & Ana T Freitas from IST/BioData.pt)
                FAIR Data Management in Federated TREs (Sven Olaf Twardziok from Bih Charite & Miikka Kallberg from CSC, both from ELIXIR Compute Platform)
                User Perspectives for International Standards for Data Processing (Alex Kanitz from SIB and ELIXIR Compute Platform)
                A framework for running analyses across multiple TREs (Tom Giles & & Philip Quinlan from University of Nottingham)
                Research Environments Can Be Built, But Trust Must Be Earned - The Patient Perspective (Richard Stephens from useMYdata and Eric Vermeulen from BBMRI-ERIC Stakeholder Forum)
                Privacy-first data sharing and collaboration (Viktoria Paroczi from Xtendr)


            3min wrap up presentations of the discussions



        16:55-17:00
        Wrap-up session


        1h Networking drinks

Theme and objectives of the event

Theme summary: Data-centric research relies on accessing and combining large-scale, sensitive data sets for analysis. These data sets require Trusted Research Environments (TREs) that offer data access and analysis with robust data management, governance and technology. However, the current landscape of TREs for sensitive or restricted data is very fragmented and lacks a common reference architecture for connectivity and interoperability.

To overcome this fragmentation and promote collaboration among different stakeholders, we need a framework for large-scale partnerships on sensitive and restricted data through a network of TREs. ELIXIR is hosting a Bioinformatics Industry Forum on this topic with the aim of fostering a collaborative approach to address these challenges.

Objectives


    Learn from best practices and experiences of established players
    Understand the relevant ecosystem
    Discover existing gaps and potential research business opportunities
    Gain insights into research and technological breakthroughs
    Encourage discussions among solution providers and foster potential collaborations

Target audience

Professionals from:


    Large, medium and small enterprises
    Funding bodies
    Academia
    Nonprofit and public organisations
    Patients’ and clinicians’ associations


With research interests in:


    Health and life sciences
    Data management
    Innovative services in the above areas

Programme Committee

            "Looking forward to a day of sharing what works, how to build partnerships and what not to do."
                - Joanne Hackett, Vice President Genomic & Precision Medicine, IQVIA











            "To continue to impact on health and society, bioinformatics needs to be applied to combined molecular and clinical datasets. How can the ELIXIR approach of partnership and federation be applied in the world of trusted research environments?"
                - Peter Maccallum, Chief Technical Officer, ELIXIR Hub











            “This day will facilitate the innovation required to maximise the impact of data: accessing data securely and ensuring solutions across different data spaces are interoperable will be key."
                - Serena Scollen, Head of Human Genomics and Translational Data, ELIXIR Hub











            “This event will bring together academic and industrial stakeholders to discuss the current state of affairs regarding the existing (and expected) infrastructures for enabling distributed processing of sensitive data."
                - Salvador Capella, Team Lead, Barcelona Supercomputing Center

Travel information

Address: First floor-south wing, 200 Aldersgate, London EC1A 4HD

By underground

St. Paul's - Central line

On exiting the station follow St Martin Le-Grand north towards Aldersgate Street and the Museum of London. When you arrive at the Museum of London roundabout our venue is located on the left. Look for the circular artwork in the window and go through the revolving doors.

Barbican - Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines

On exiting the station turn right on to Aldersgate Street. Follow Aldersgate Street south towards London Wall and the Museum of London. As you arrive at the roundabout for Museum of London our venue is on the right. Cross over the zebra crossing and look for the circular artwork in the window and go through the revolving doors to reception.

By train

Aldersgate Station is located near Moorgate and Farringdon railway stations, and is around a 10 minute walk from both.

By bus

The closest bus stop is at the Museum of London and is served directly by the number 4 and 56. Other services also serve Barbican and St. Paul's and our venue is a short walk from both these locations.

Parking

The closest car park is located next to the venue at 158 – 170 Aldersgate Street. Visit www.ncp.co.uk for more details.

See also the venue travel information.

Accommodation

Participants and speakers are expected to make their own accommodation arrangements. The recommended hotel is Premier Inn London Blackfriars, which is located 13 min walking distance from the venue.

Background information

See the Bioinformatics Industry Forum page.


    70
        participants per event, on average

    60
        companies joined our two F2F events

    92%
        of participants would recommend the event to their colleagues



    A very useful forum to connect with people from ELIXIR who are deeply embedded in the European space of bioinformatics while learning about latest advances in the field.
        - Sebastian Schwarz (Data Platform Strategy Lead, Owkin)

    A wonderful event, really excellent talks covering a range of relevant challenges which our community needs to think carefully about. And networking is always invaluable!
        - Anonymous

    Thank you providing such a brilliant forum for discussion. I have many actions and people to follow up with.
        - Anonymous