An EU-funded pan-European initiative to operate a sustainable infrastructure for managing and safeguarding biological information in Europe has been given the go-ahead by five European countries. The Memorandum signed represents a first step towards the implementation and construction of a sustainable infrastructure for managing and safeguarding biological information in Europe. The researchers of this initiative hope that it will support life science research and its translation to related fields in medicine, the environment and bio-industries.

Five European countries have all signed a Memorandum of Understanding that acts as their seal of approval for the implementation of ELIXIR (European life-science infrastructure for biological information), Europe's emerging research infrastructure for life-science information. This EU-funded pan-European initiative has been given the go-ahead by Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Although the memorandum is only a first formal agreement and is not yet legally binding, it represents a first step towards the implementation and construction of this infrastructure.

The aim of ELIXIR, which was given a boost of €4,500,000 funding as part of the 'Research infrastructures' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), is to ensure that there is open access to information about the building blocks of life such as genes, proteins and complex networks. ELIXIR's architects hope this initiative will support life science research and its translation to related fields in medicine, the environment and bio-industries. ELIXIR hopes to promote open access as a founding principle, based on the belief that the more information is open to researchers across academia and industry, the more it can contribute to economic growth and benefit society as a whole, in keeping with the European Commission's Digital Agenda strategy, one of the Europe 2020 flagship policies.

Countries signing the Memorandum will be represented on the Interim Board, the main body for negotiating ELIXIR's final legal and governance structure. The current signatories hope that eventually all European countries will get on board and endorse the Memorandum too.