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EMBRACE
Embrace is a European bioinformatics network project that begins on February 1. It has received funding of 8.28 million euros from the European Commission for five years and involves 16 partners from 11 countries. Its goal is to standardize access to the vast quantities data from genome projects and their study methods so that researchers can consult it and use it easily.
Embrace will use a “grid technology” by which a large number of geographically separated computers work in a network to provide substantial storage and calculation capacity.
With Embrace, users of bioinformatic data will connect to the web site of the grid and will be guided step by step. They will have easy access to the latest versions of the data. The suppliers, who will be fewer than the users, will handle the upgrading of the grid's standards and functions.
- collection, curation and provision of biomolecular information
- development of tools and programming interfaces to exploit that information
- tracking and exploiting advances in information technology with a view to their application in bioinformatics
- training and outreach to groups which can benefit from the work of the network
16 partners from 11 Countries, divided into groups:
- EBI –UK (coordinator): will integrate the databases and reference algorithms
- CNRS - France: responsible for selection and for the technology watch;
- University of Uppsala – Sweden: will test Embrace's response to some “typical questions” (cancers, hepatitis C, …)
- University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands: will coordinate promotion of the grid with biology researchers and will train them to integrate their data
- CINECA is connected with the Italian Partner, CNR (Bari)