What is ELIXIR and what does it do?

ELIXIR is Europe's distributed research infrastructure for life science data. It is not a single institute or a single database: it is a coordinated network that connects research institutes across many countries so that life science data, tools, and training can be shared and reused more effectively. If you work with biological data and need services, resources, or funded activities, ELIXIR is designed as an entry point to find them.

How ELIXIR is organised

ELIXIR's structure is what makes it "distributed." Instead of one central lab, it works through several connected layers:

• Nodes — A Node is the collection of research institutes that work for ELIXIR in a country. Node institutes run national services and support local users.
• Platforms — Networks of technical experts from across ELIXIR's Nodes coordinating technical activities.
• Communities — Experts developing ELIXIR's vision and coordinating activities in key life science areas.
• Focus Groups — Time-limited groups addressing topics of emerging interest.

This means a researcher in one country can reach services and expertise maintained in another, because the coordination happens at the network level rather than country by country.

What ELIXIR actually offers

The homepage groups its offering into a few practical entry points:

• Find services and resources — a way to locate tools and data resources across the network.
• Search funded activities — projects and work that ELIXIR has supported.
• Explore ELIXIR's impact — reports and evidence of what the infrastructure has enabled.
• Collaborate with us — routes for organisations and individuals to get involved.

There are also audience-specific paths under "Discover our benefits":

What it is trying to achieve

ELIXIR's stated direction is driving open science in life science data. Two themes recur in its published material:

• FAIR data practices — making data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. For example, the HARVEST project, funded by ELIXIR, worked on making it easier to package, validate, and reuse plant research data.
• Open source software and workflows — ELIXIR published a report showing how open source software and workflows drive innovation and commercialisation across the life sciences.

It also runs recurring community events. BioHackathon Europe, held annually since 2019, has resulted in 43 preprints with a combined total of over 14,000 downloads. The 2026 edition is scheduled for 9–13 November 2026 as an in-person event. ELIXIR also appears at conferences such as ECCB 2026 in Geneva.

When ELIXIR is useful to you

ELIXIR is a good fit if you:

• Need to find life science data services or resources maintained across Europe.
• Want to know what data-related projects have received funding and what they produced.
• Are looking for training, standards, or community activity around FAIR data.
• Represent an institute or funder considering collaboration or membership.

It is less useful if you need a single hosted database with a single login, or if you are looking for clinical or medical advice — ELIXIR is infrastructure and coordination, not a clinical service.

How to start using it

1. Go to elixir-europe.org.
2. Use Find services and resources if you are looking for a tool or dataset.
3. Use Search funded activities if you want to see what has been supported in your area.
4. Check ELIXIR Nodes to find the institutes active in a specific country, since national services and local user support sit at the Node level.
5. If you want to participate rather than consume, look at Collaborate with us and the audience path that matches you (member, funder, EU project).

One practical note: because ELIXIR is a network, the fastest route to help is often through your national Node rather than the central site, since Nodes run the national services and support local users directly.