ELIXIR unites Europe’s leading life science organisations in managing and safeguarding the increasing volume of data being generated by publicly funded research. It coordinates, integrates and sustains bioinformatics resources across its 23 Nodes. ELIXIR enables users in academia and industry to access services (databases, software, training, standards, compute) provided through national Nodes. ELIXIR is the ESFRI Landmark for life science data and plays a unique role in the landscape, with millions of users globally, supporting the digital-needs of other ESFRIs and Horizon Europe research projects. Increasingly, life-science data is held at national and institutional centres. Thus, large-scale data analytics requires that researchers can find and analyse data distributed across Europe. The purpose of ELIXIR-STEERS is to build capacity for large-scale, cross-border data analysis and for this capacity to be embedded across member states. ELIXIR-STEERS directly benefit Europe’s life scientists by allowing software and workflows to meet requirements of those using them in national centres. A ‘robust, reproducible and green’ approach to software and workflow provision will ensure that scientists have access to high quality, energy-efficient analysis tools. The project will also develop the crediting and recognition systems for software, supporting improvements to research assessment frameworks. Further, ELIXIR-STEERS supports ELIXIR’s long-term operations by addressing the recommendations of the European Commission and ESFRI on the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures. It will strengthen the operational excellence of ELIXIR’s Nodes; support the training and development of professional and scientific staff in ELIXIR Nodes; expand the membership of ELIXIR to new countries, especially widening countries; enable international collaborations in particular with Latin America and Africa; and stimulate innovation and industry engagement.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been identified as important signaling mediators in a myriad of physiological and pathological processes. There is an emerging effort to advance the exploitation of EVs in precision healthcare, with special emphasis on drug delivery and liquid biopsy. However, the current technology readiness level in the field and lack of standardized methodology guidelines are limiting the exploitation of EVs, so a significant leap toward the establishment of novel tools has to be made. EXPAND-EV’s main goal is to provide a unique solution for advancing the current diagnostic and therapeutic potential of EVs by developing and implementing versatile, scalable, cost-effective and reproducible purification systems, based on single-domain antibody affinity technology for high-performance scalable EVs capture, in two parallel lines of research: (I) the system will be validated in clinical laboratory settings on breast (BC), liver (HC) and lung cancer (LC) by analyzing differential expression of multi -omics (proteomic, glycomic and transcriptomic) EVs-related features, with the goal to develop a panel of biomarkers that would contribute in timely diagnostics, enable a convenient and non-invasive prognosis assessment and tailored therapy. (II) development of GMP-compliant protocol for producing edible plant EVs as carriers of therapeutic siRNA molecules. Their safety profile and therapeutic potential will be tested on BC, HC and LC cell lines and mouse models. By establishing a consortium composed of excellent research groups and SMEs across Europe, EXPAND-EV will bring forth the needed paradigm shift in EVs research by solving the major bottleneck issue in the field. Creating a simple, robust, cheap, scalable and reproducible EVs purification system will provide much-needed technology for application of EVs in personalized medicine, leading the transition of EVs use from a promising laboratory concept to a feasible and applicable theranostic agent.

ERINHA2 aims to complete the work carried out during the first preparatory phase (PP1) - ERINHA - in order to reach the financial, administrative and technical maturity necessary to complete the establishment of the Research Infrastructre and ensure that the operation phase can begin in 2018. ERINHA2 will therefore finalise the decision to use the status of an association and prepare the necessary legal document to register the RI depending on the country voted on to host the Central Coordinating Unit. ERINHA2 will prepare all procedures and protocols (human resources, IPR, ethics) needed to effectively operate the RI. The financial and business plans prepared in ERINHA (PP1) will updated and presented to national and international stakeholders to obtain their agreement to fund the infrastructure. An overarching group of activities - WP5, Stakeholders and commitment - will aim to accompany all partner countries in their efforts to obtain agreements and funding. This WP5 will ensure all relevant stakeholders and potential users are informed of the progress, services and benefits of ERINHA. The utlimate outcome of ERINHA2 will be the signtature of the ERINHA statutes among the founding countries to officially establish the RI and enter into the construction phase.