On the 19th June, UKRI announced investments to upgrade the UK’s research infrastructure (https://lnkd.in/e9N89S-a) including a proposed £34 million investment in BioFAIR (https://biofair.uk/), which will be a new digital infrastructure to support research in biological and biomedical sciences. Subject to business case approval, BioFAIR will focus on widening access to existing data processing, analysis and repository infrastructures, from organisations such as ELIXIR-UK (https://lnkd.in/e9v4BScF), to maximise the findability, accessibility, interoperability, reusability (FAIR) and reproducibility of researchers’ data.
We are now delighted to announce that Gerry Reilly will be joining BioFAIR as Interim Director. Gerry was previously the inaugural Chief Technology Officer and then Technologist in Residence at Health Data Research UK (https://www.hdruk.ac.uk/) and also Design Authority for the start-up phase of the UKRI Data and Analytics Research Environments programme (https://dareuk.org.uk/). Prior to joining HDR UK, Gerry held a series of senior executive and technical leadership roles in the IT industry. Gerry will be working with BBSRC and MRC to prepare the business case for BioFAIR, and with the user and infrastructure communities to prepare for the implementation phase of the programme starting subject to funding in 2024.
ELIXIR-UK, the national node of the ELIXIR European Research Infrastructure for Life Science Data, have led the development of the BioFAIR concept. Carole Goble, Joint Head of Node of ELIXIR-UK said “ we are thrilled to have Gerry join BioFAIR. His outstanding track record, technical understanding and business experience make him a perfect fit for Interim Director.”
Neil Hall Director of the Earlham Institute and joint head of node said “Gerry’s appointment is the catalyst we need to make rapid progress toward delivering the vision of BioFAIR for the UK life science community”.
We anticipate starting a competitive process to appoint a permanent Director for BioFAIR during the summer of 2024.