ELIXIR-CZ provides resources to fight the SARS-CoV-2 / Covid-19 pandemic

ELIXIR-CZ (Czech National Infrastructure for Biological Data) provides a research infrastructure for the storage, processing and analysing data in the field of life sciences. Like other scientific workplaces, also ELIXIR-CZ offers professional support, services and expertise in the fight against SARS-CoV-2. To make the relevant topics clearer, ELIXIR-CZ has launched a website dedicated to Covid-19, where experts and the general public can find information on activities related to the fight against Covid-19.

The website provides recommendations for data storage and sharing and the information on access to relevant data. ELIXIR-CZ specifically provides assistance in setting up the FAIR data principles (to make stored data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), special software and analytics tools, and computing resources to help analyse data sets. Last but not least, ELIXIR-CZ brings together experts working together on Covid-19 topics.

ELIXIR-CZ has offered its services in the creation of an epidemiological pandemic model of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic and, at the same time, with help of partner institutions gathered within the ELIXIR (European Life-Science Infrastructure for Biological Information) European network, ELIXIR-CZ has formulated the requirements for the availability of relevant data for the creation of such a model.

ELIXIR-CZ has been actively involved in the research team established under the auspices of IDEA at CERGE-EI (Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute) and is involved in modelling the epidemiological situation in the Czech Republic. ELIXIR-CZ contributes by searching and comparing relevant resources, scientific literature and, above all, obtaining best practice examples from other ELIXIR Members, such as Estonia, Denmark or Switzerland.

ELIXIR-CZ also entered into cooperation with the testing centre at Palacký University in Olomouc, which hosts the EATRIS-CZ (Czech National Node to the European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine) facility, being a Member of EATRIS ERIC (European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine), and offered them computing resources and architecture to ensure the processing of large amounts of data associated with testing. The support lies in the expansion of the computing capacity of data processing servers and also in the expansion of the storage capacity of the centre, which works with sensitive data.

ELIXIR-CZ continues to coordinate the connection to the ELIXIR scientific portals, especially in the field of searching for proven technologies for testing on Covid-19, and mediation with testing facilities.

ELIXIR-CZ – Czech National Infrastructure for Biological Data