August 1, 2016
The overall conclusions of this Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) are that the field of systems biology has become an important component of the European life sciences. A strong European systems biology community has been formed that is able to take initiatives, such as FAIRDOM (Chapter 5) and ISBE (chapter 7). The 5 most important recommendations in the SRA are summarised below.
- Develop novel larger-scale and longer-time funding schemes for academic research and for academia industry collaboration that link molecular and cellular processes with the physiological properties of tissues, organs, complete organisms, up to ecosystems. Such measures will have a major impact on health, food, bio-economy and sustainability. Chapter 3
- Make industry, in particular SMEs, aware of the opportunities, costs and timelines of building, validating and exploiting predictive models of biological systems, through dedicated training programmes. Chapters 4 and 6
- Increase the effi ciency and cost-eff ectiveness of research projects by making their integrated results (data, procedures, models, maps, etc.) FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-useable. Make the FAIR principle an explicit component of research budgets. Chapter 5
- Accelerate the incorporation of systems biology in current academic curricula; developing dedicated multidisciplinary MSc and doctoral programmes and foster life-long training for professionals. Chapter 6
- Invest in the development of European Research Infrastructures, such as the European Systems Biology research infrastructure ISBE, and make them the solid bedrock for this Strategic Research Agenda and other European research policies in the biomedical and life sciences.
More details can be found at: Strategic Research Agenda – Systems Biology in Europe 2016