Status of ELIXIR following UK referendum on EU

DTL hosts the Dutch node of ELIXIR, which is the European research infrastructure for life science data and bioinformatics. As you will know, the UK last week voted to leave the EU. There will be NO direct implications of this decision on the operations of ELIXIR.

In light of the decision by the UK to leave the European Union (EU), ELIXIR would like to clarify that it is not part of the EU: the result does not effect UK membership of ELIXIR, nor have any direct bearing on ELIXIR’s ability to access EU research funding. The ELIXIR Hub uses the legal model of EMBL, which is itself an international treaty organisation. It is entirely separate from the EU and a statement from EMBL clarifies this in detail. The UK has not voted to leave EMBL or ELIXIR. The operational budget of the ELIXIR Hub can continue to be committed on Commissioned Services carried out between the UK and other ELIXIR Members.

Furthermore, for the purposes of participating in EU research programmes, the ELIXIR Hub is categorised as an international treaty organisation (EMBL) rather than a UK entity. The ELIXIR Hub and EBI can still continue to access grants from Horizon 2020 and there will be no impact on the ELIXIR-EXCELERATE and CORBEL grants that are coordinated by the ELIXIR Hub on behalf of partners.

Whilst the ELIXIR UK Node is made up of UK legal entities, there are not expected to be any short term impacts on its activities and operations.

For any further questions, please visit the ELIXIR website.

This entry was posted in ELIXIR.

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