Modern research in life sciences – 'omics' technologies, systems biology – is characterised by the increasing volume and complexity of the data involved. Bioinformatics tools and approaches are crucial for processing and interpreting these complex data sets and generating meaningful biological knowledge.
In 2003, the Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre (NBIC) was founded to stimulate, organise and advance the field of bioinformatics and e-bioscience in the Netherlands by developing a strong bioinformatics community, cutting edge computational methods and tools and creating a top-level and accessible bioinformatics infrastructure. The NBIC approach is characterised by the collaboration of bioinformatics experts from academia and industry. NBIC research projects are designed to advance the bioinformatics field and boost the biology research of partner centres. Knowledge transfer has high priority in all programmes, which are supported by dedicated valorisation projects.
The activities of NBIC are organised in three programmes:
- BioRange research programme focuses on innovative and groundbreaking bioinformatics research. Nearly 100 new bioinformatics researchers work on topics such as sequence-based bioinformatics, genotype-phenotype modelling, bioinformatics of proteomics and metabolomics analysis, systems bioinformatics and e-science for bioinformatics. Over the past three years, the BioRange projects have generated numerous published tools and algorithms, which have paved the way for new discoveries in biology research.
- BioAssist is the research support programme of NBIC.
The main task of BioAssist is to establish bioinformatics support platforms for communities of selected biology research areas, including genomics. Furthermore, it also mobilises the deployment of necessary largescale ICT research infrastructure for life sciences in the Netherlands. The programme comprises collaborations with e-science programmes: VLe (the Virtual Laboratory for e-science)
and BiG Grid (Dutch e-science grid).
- BioWise research training programme facilitates, coordinates and implements education activities aimed at the next generation of bioinformaticians in academia and industry. BioWise addresses all levels of education, ranging from top academic (NBIC PhD school) and workshops on dedicated bioinformatics topics, to teaching at high school level (“bioinformatics@school”).
