BioFAIR is investing up to £4 million over an initial two-year period (from Q2 2026) to establish the Methods Commons partnership and team, with the expectation that a successful collaboration will be extended to deliver the full programme of work through to June 2029 and beyond.
BioFAIR is a UKRI-funded initiative to transform the UK life sciences by developing a digital research infrastructure that propels FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) research. The Methods Commons is a critical component of this infrastructure, providing national-scale capabilities for the discovery, execution, sharing and reuse of computational workflows, tools and notebooks that underpin modern data-driven research. The Methods Commons will play a pivotal role in addressing long-standing challenges in reproducibility, reuse and sustainability of computational methods by expanding the capabilities available to life sciences researchers in the UK, democratising access to services for discovering community-endorsed workflows, executing them at scale, and sharing results using community standards.
Key dates
| Activity | Date |
| Expressions of Interest Open | 22 December 2025 |
| Expressions of Interest Close | 19 January 2026 |
| Shortlisted Applicants Notified | 23 January 2026 |
| Full Proposal Briefing Event | 26 January 2026 |
| Full Proposal Close | 23 February 2026 |
Page last updated on 22/12/2025
We are inviting Expressions of Interest (EOI) from applicants eager to be involved in the BioFAIR Methods Commons. This is the first part of a process to form a partnership with a team that will assume responsibility for the full design, development, and long-term maintenance of the BioFAIR Methods Commons. This team will receive up to £4 million over two years to fund activities in scope. The Methods Commons will connect with other key components of BioFAIR, including the Data Commons (focussing on the sharing of data, metadata and standards), the People Commons (the expanding community of FAIR practice that will drive adoption), the Knowledge hub (to establish a central training capability), the BioFAIR Portal (to provide expertise and access to tools and services relevant to researchers’ needs) and the BioFAIR Hub (to support with wider project coordination and to provide foundational services required across the entire BioFAIR infrastructure). Once put together, these components are organised into a “Hub and spokes” model – the BioFAIR hub supports central coordination whilst the Commons, Knowledge hub and Portal are the spokes with the expertise and responsibility for delivery of BioFAIR services.
Rather than a fixed, short-term project with tightly prescribed deliverables, this opportunity is focused on establishing a long-term partnership and a cohesive, multi-institutional team of around 8-10 FTE that will work as part of BioFAIR to design, deliver, operate and evolve the Methods Commons over time. We are particularly interested in establishing a clearly bounded, long-lived service team, designed to communicate and collaborate effectively with the BioFAIR Hub and delivery teams through well-defined interaction modes, shared platforms and capabilities as the project matures and requirements evolve.
We are inviting EOI from eligible UK organisations and consortia that have the expertise and operational maturity to deliver this service. The expression of interest stage represents the first of a two stage process to appoint the first BioFAIR spoke. EOI will be used by the BioFAIR hub to screen eligible and credible applicants, and this screening will include a number of due diligence checks. BioFAIR is a UKRI funded project managed through BBSRC and MRC, and this screening helps BioFAIR ensure its funding will be used in accordance with UK government standards. Suitable applicants from the EOI will be invited to submit a full proposal and details of the full call will be made available to those applicants when they are notified on 23rd January 2026. A briefing event ahead of full proposal submission will take place on 26th January. Full proposals must address the scope described below, but additional supporting documents including an application template and a functional specification of the BioFAIR platform will be provided with the full call details. Full proposals will be reviewed by an expert peer review panel, after which a single successful applicant will be selected to establish the Methods Commons “spoke”.
This funding opportunity is open to team members based at:
- higher education institutions
- research council institutes
- approved independent research organisations
- public sector research establishments
Optionally, the team can also include relevant industry or third-sector partners.
EOI applicants must demonstrate a strong track record in service delivery (especially services that operate as part of national-scale research infrastructure), collaboration on data science platforms, and community coordination. EOIs must clearly explain whether the applicant will apply to deliver the entire Methods Commons or only specific capabilities (see scope section). Applicants interested in delivering the full Methods Commons, and applicants interested in delivering specific capabilities, will be considered eligible, but note that at the second stage (invited full proposals), only applications to deliver the entire Methods Commons will be considered. Applicants expressing interest in specific capabilities will be required to form a consortium with other applicants who can provide the rest of the required capabilities prior to submitting a full application. Matchmaking opportunities will be provided by the BioFAIR Hub.
EOI applicants must define all partners that will be funded as part of this project. If you are submitting an EOI on behalf of a consortium, a lead organisation must be designated and the lead organisation must be a UK institute eligible to receive UKRI funding. A named individual based at the lead organisation must also be designated as the project lead. Industry or third-sector partners should be subcontracted from the lead partner but should still be named on the application. The BioFAIR Hub can support centralised procurement or subcontracting of specific services if required and we invite enquiries prior to submission if you think this might be needed. The project lead must be adequately and responsibly resourced as part of the project, and their commitment level highlighted in the application. The intellectual leadership and overall management of the project (including work packages or staff) may be shared with any number of project co-leads at any number of eligible research organisations as part of a team science endeavour, with roles clearly specified in the application.
Due Diligence
To ensure UKRI funding is used appropriately and responsibly, EOI applicants must answer several questions related to the status of the lead organisation. Applicants must supply:
- Organisation details, including legal status and financial details, signed by an authorised legal signatory
Applicants must also make a declaration of whether they have the following policies/controls in place:
- Anti-fraud/bribery policy
- Conflicts of interest policy
- UK GDPR/data-protection policy
- Procurement policy
- Research integrity & misconduct policy
- Bullying, harassment & safe working environment policy
- Equality, diversity & inclusion policy
- Open research (data, software, publications) policy
- Trusted research, security & export controls.
These declarations are for due diligence and proportionate risk management. They do not constitute eligibility criteria. Where key items are not yet in place, BioFAIR may discuss mitigations (for example, named contacts, timelines, etc.) before award.
This section outlines the expected scope of the BioFAIR Methods Commons. At this stage, EOIs should focus on the ability of the applicant to deliver the proposed scope, the team that will be assembled, and the established working practices shared by this team. A full delivery plan is not required as part of the EOI. Following the EOI stage, suitable applicants will be invited to submit a full application that will be peer reviewed and must cover the proposed approach, including the details of technical architecture, implementation plans, and work package structures. Once full proposals are submitted and reviewed, a single successful applicant will be selected to establish the Methods Commons. Here we define the expectations of what will be delivered by the successful applicant.
The Methods Commons
The BioFAIR Methods Commons will facilitate the collaborative use of research methods that support the data analytics needed for FAIR research. “Methods” in this context are computational methods, i.e. tools, registries, workflows, executable notebooks and scripts. Experimental protocols, lab protocols and standard operating procedures are not considered in scope for the Methods Commons in this phase.
Capabilities
The Methods Commons team will deliver key capabilities at a national scale for UK life sciences. These are:
- A Galaxy workflow execution capability
- A Nextflow workflow execution capability
- A capability for execution of bespoke workflows that adhere to well-defined standards (for example, this could be implemented as support for executing Snakemake workflows packaged in Docker containers and dispatched to a particular set of supported HPC environments via SLURM)
- A BioFAIR workflow registry, providing users the ability to discover and register workflows that are endorsed by BioFAIR (through an endorsement mechanism defined by the Methods Commons)
- A workflow observatory capability, providing a level of trust and quality to users seeking to reuse BioFAIR registered workflows and ensuring all workflows in the BioFAIR registry are safely executable in an appropriate environment
- A web-based computing environment for sharing and executing Jupyter notebooks
- An API standard for sustainably sharing results of computational workflows that follow community standards and best practice, and reference implementations of that standard
- API standards for ingesting input data; including both the “raw” data that is the input for analysis workflows and “pre-processed” data to be used for analysis and visualisation with notebooks, and reference implementations of those standards
Not all of these capabilities are required as part of a minimum viable product (MVP); development of the Methods Commons services is expected to follow an incremental approach that delivers early value to the life sciences research community, based on user-driven design principles.
By the end of the funding period, the successful applicant will be able to demonstrate that each of the eight capabilities has been achieved for a selection of exemplar use cases, and the extent to which those capabilities scale. Exemplar use cases can be selected by the applicant, but should represent the needs of multiple different scientific communities. The BioFAIR Hub team can support the selection of these use cases, if required, through connection to BioFAIR Fellows, BioFAIR Pathfinder Projects, and wider scientific communities. Achieving national scale is not expected in the initial funding period and future funding will focus on scaling up. Whilst successful applicants are expected to achieve all eight capabilities by the end of the funding period, it is expected that some of those capabilities will be prioritised early and therefore demonstrate a higher maturity level than those scheduled for later delivery.
Deliverables
Over the course of the BioFAIR Project, the BioFAIR Methods Commons team is expected to undertake a number of activities, designed to achieve a deliverable set of target outcomes.
| Expected Activity | Target Outcome(s) |
| Setting up and commissioning central workflow platform hosting | A hosted platform that supports on-demand execution of exemplar workflows for at least three different scientific communities (e.g. represented by Pathfinder Projects or similar) |
| On-boarding tools and workflow packages | A set of tools and workflows, integrated into the hosted platform, to support exemplar workflows for at least three different scientific communities |
| Supporting workflow development and sharing within and between scientific communities of practice | At least one documented case study, suitable for new users to follow, explaining how a scientific community collaborated with Methods Commons services to onboard their workflow needs into the hosted platform |
| Provisioning reference datasets into workflow execution environments, and combining with researchers own data | Workflows for at least three different scientific communities, available from a hosted platform, that are executable over previously unseen user-supplied data. User supplied data should be provided following documented standards and through documented access protocols. |
| Provisioning support for researcher workspaces within workflow execution environments | A playbook and a demonstration that uses features available as part of a hosted platform, showing how new users can set up their own analysis domain, import data, execute workflows and visualise results using Jupyter notebooks. User supplied workflows and data can be constrained to those with limited characteristics (e.g. Galaxy workflows retrievable from the workflow registry that analyse genomic sequencing data) as long as the required workflow standards and data standards are well documented. |
As part of this EOI, it is not required to explain in depth how these outcomes will be achieved, however you may wish to demonstrate that your team has the track record to achieve these and other relevant outcomes based on prior experience. Organisations and consortia that progress to the second stage will be expected to provide details of their approach in the full application.
This opportunity will provide funding for an initial two years (expected to commence March/April 2026), but a successful partnership will be extended up to and potentially beyond June 2029. As part of the EOI applicants are encouraged to consider their priorities, estimate what functionality might be available within each capability, and how this might create a foundation for future development as they work towards their target outcomes within the first two years.
Collaboration
The BioFAIR Hub team will facilitate the Methods Commons team in developing the required capabilities and achieving their deliverables. The BioFAIR Hub team will provide:
- Connections to the wider BioFAIR network,
- Connections to research technical professional with the availability and willingness to support the embedding of Methods Commons services in scientific communities (especially through the BioFAIR Fellowships and Pathfinder Projects), and
- Support for outreach and engagement opportunities.
Additionally, the BioFAIR Hub team will be responsible for:
- Foundational technical services that can be utilised as required (including e.g. a federated identity provider service, service hosting, platform as a service offerings, and centralised cybersecurity services such as Cloudflare),
- BioFAIR-wide governance processes (including e.g. security audits and penetration testing), and
- Procurement processes (including e.g. procurement of physical and virtual technical infrastructure, cloud resources and supercomputing facility time).
We recognise that, as the establishment of the Methods Commons will be led by the Methods Commons team, active collaboration between the BioFAIR Hub and the Methods Commons team will be needed to deliver and operate a robust, sustainable infrastructure. As part of the EOI, applicants are encouraged to consider how they will create a collaborative, communicative team that works effectively alongside the BioFAIR Hub. We also encourage applicants to highlight any foundational services (technical, communication or project management) they might need as a matter of priority.
Team Science
Your application is expected to assemble a diverse and distinctive team of researchers and other specialists drawn from the full breadth of expertise available across the UK with the collective capability of delivering the proposed work. Applicants are encourage to consider dedicating staff to the project at a high level of commitment (more than 50% FTE) to support the creation of an effective and collaborative distributed team.
Project or Grant Managers
Applicants are strongly encouraged to include a project or grant manager in the core team to support day-to-day project coordination, tracking of project progress and proactive risk management throughout the lifetime of the project.
Research Technical Professionals
Building on the Technician Commitment UKRI Action Plan and the UKRI people and teams action plan, applicants are particularly encouraged to include research technical professionals in the team. Applicants are also encouraged to consider including research technical professionals as project co-leads.
Submission Guidelines
Interested parties are required to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) covering their vision for the Methods Commons, a brief overview of their initial scope and priorities, and their proposed team structure. This information is needed to support credibility checks. Details of the host organisations of the team must also be included, to support eligibility screening and due diligence checks.
Expressions of Interest should provide details on your vision and proposed initial scope, emphasising your credibility to deliver the required capabilities of the Methods Commons at a national scale. You should also focus on why your organisation or consortium is best placed to form and/or host members of the BioFAIR Methods Commons team. Clearly explain the organisation(s) involved, team structures (including departmental structures or line management structures if relevant), and the governance structure being proposed for the Methods Commons team, with figures where appropriate.
To support your vision and initial scope, you should explain:
- Your track record of delivery of tools and/or services aligned to the scope of the Methods Commons
- Your current engagement with communities of potential users of Methods Commons services, and how this engagement drives the delivery of your service offerings
- Your view on the most urgent needs of potential users of Methods Commons services
- Whether you propose to bring your own established relationships to institutional infrastructure (e.g. high-performance computing), commercial cloud or hosting providers
- If you will support procurement within the Methods Commons team
- If you expect to commit any in-kind infrastructural resources
- Whether you expect infrastructure needs to change over time in ways that might require an evolving relationship with the BioFAIR hub
Applicants are especially encouraged to consider how they would organise and prioritise their development efforts to ensure that value is delivered to users, addressing their most urgent needs, as early as possible whilst capabilities are being developed and expanded incrementally.
You should also describe your team and governance structures. Explain:
- Who your team members are, and which organisation(s) they belong to, and their proposed level of commitment to this project.
- How the proposed team members will be able to effectively work together as part of a Methods Commons team (expected to be 8-10 people in total). Discussion on your team’s delivery philosophy, agile practices or similar could be included here.
- Why your organisation or consortium has the established skills, expertise and track record to support the creation or expansion of the Methods Commons key capabilities.
- How you propose to embed user driven design principles into your team, and what support you would need from the BioFAIR Hub team and the wider BioFAIR community to ensure a timely flow of user requirements and user testing of developed services
- How your team has shown its commitment to and support for standards and interoperability (e.g., GA4GH, ELIXIR, EOSC, FAIR Digital Objects, RO-Crate)
- How your team will demonstrate a focus on value and agility to user needs, for example by including impact evaluation plans and/or KPIs covering metrics such as user uptake, number of workflows added/executed, user satisfaction, evidence of scientific, societal, or economic impact
Applicants are also encouraged to explain how they will ensure effective collaboration with the BioFAIR Hub to:
- Communicate procurement needs (especially of hardware and cloud infrastructure) and ensure infrastructure capacity is suitable and sufficient to meet the Methods Commons team’s needs, and
- Mitigate any risks of development and operational bottlenecks in Methods Commons service delivery
If the proposed team is formed from personnel across more than one organisation, please explain how your governance structures will work to effectively create a single distributed unit, how personnel with different line management structures will collaborate effectively, and what types of communication will be in place – or, if support is needed from the BioFAIR Hub, what support you will need.
Your EOI must also include detailed information about your organisations so as to support due diligence checks prior to progressing to a full invited application.
| Section | Content Description | Word Count |
|---|---|---|
| Executive Summary | Briefly summarise your interest in applying to establish the BioFAIR Methods Commons. | 250 |
| Vision & Initial Scope | Articulate the vision for the BioFAIR Methods Commons and briefly describe the priorities for early delivery of value to users. Highlight which Methods Commons capabilities will be prioritised for early delivery of value and how effort will shift within the funding period to ensure the remaining capabilities can be achieved for exemplar use cases. You may optionally include a single figure to explain your vision for the Methods Commons. | 750 |
| Team & Governance | Explain why your team is well placed to deliver the BioFAIR Methods Commons capabilities, based on the track record of the organisations involved and the expertise of the personnel in your team. Detail the proposed team structure, institutional commitments, and relevant expertise. Describe your proposed governance structure, with details (if necessary) of how you will ensure effective collaboration across a distributed team. You may optionally include a single figure to illustrate your team structure. | 750 |
| Cost Projection | A brief summary of how the funding will be divided across personnel/staff costs, hardware, commercial cloud, licenses and other costs in the initial two year period. Briefly explain how your team will coordinate with the BioFAIR Hub to identify which resources (e.g., cloud, HPC) should be procured centrally versus those managed locally by your team. Highlighting existing ‘in-kind’ infrastructure or institutional support is encouraged. Full costing is not necessary at this stage. BioFAIR will cover costs at 100% FEC. | 250 |
| Due Diligence | Complete the provided due diligence form | N/A |
Submission Process
- Download the mandatory EOI template and the Due Diligence Form
- All expressions of interest must be sent electronically to opportunities@biofair.uk by 19 January 2026 at 16:00 GMT.
- Questions regarding this opportunity should be directed to the Hub team at opportunities@biofair.uk before 19 January 2026.
Ready to submit?
Expressions of Interest are now open until 19 January 2026. Please submit your applications to opportunities@biofair.uk by 16:00 GMT!
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We look forward to receiving innovative and compelling proposals to establish the BioFAIR Methods Commons.