BBMRI-ERIC and BBMRI.uk launch Interoperability Forum to discuss and develop open standards

BBMRI-ERIC has built a reputation for building open source tooling that can support biobanks being integrated into a wider discovery framework. The UK Node of BBMRI, also known as the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre, has long led work with some of the world’s leading suppliers of biobank software to ensure the software they provide can implement data standards that come from infrastructures such as BBMRI-ERIC and BBMRI.uk will be leading this forum.

We are making a call for interest parties to join our pre-competitive work to establish common standards, APIs and processes for the exchange of information about samples and associated clinical data. There are two areas of focus for this group.

The first group is for vendors and academic groups who supply biobanks with software systems to manage their samples. We are keen to follow on from the work in the UK to work with as many of these vendors as possible to ensure data can be extracted from these systems using the BBMRI developed MIABIS data standard.

The second group is for vendors and academic groups who install software within biobanks to make distributed search and/or discovery techniques possible. We have noticed an increase in the prevalence of these tools and the potential burden this may place on biobanks should they wish to be part of many networks or search systems each requiring specific tools to be installed.

The first step is to have a kick off (virtual) meeting to set out the aims and timeframes and to set up the process in which we can freely share and exchange ideas in a pre-competitive manner.

How to become involved

This work is being led by Dr. Philip Quinlan, Director of BBMRI.uk. Please get in touch with the UK Node if you are interested to join this exciting work.

Principles of involvement

• Vendor neutrality: No vendor has preferential treatment within the Interoperability Forum (IF) and the IF is continuously open to new groups to join.
• Delivering open and interoperable protocols
• BBMRI-ERIC commits to providing a reference open-source implementation of these open interoperable protocols. The vendors are free to implement these protocols in their [closed] products, which may offer different added values, implement additional [proprietary] protocols, etc.