ELIXIR

Name

ELIXIR

Legal name

ELIXIR

Website

https://elixir-europe.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Bioinformatics Research Infrastructure

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Scientific Data Management & Data Platforms (SDMS/Data Lakehouse for R&D) (HLAGAJAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Knowledge Management & Scientific Collaboration / Literature Intelligence (HLAGAJAN), Clinical & Translational Informatics (Clinical Data Integration/Real-World Data for R&D) (HLAGAJAF), Regulatory Information Management (RIM) & Submission Publishing Software (HLAGAJAL)

Keywords

• Life science data
• Bioinformatics infrastructure
• Research data services
• Data management platforms
• Scientific training programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: ELIXIR Hub is funded through membership fees paid by Member countries, with much of this funding transferred back to Nodes via Commissioned Services to deliver ELIXIR's five-year Scientific Programme. ELIXIR has 24 Member countries and four Observers.
2. European Union Grant Funding: ELIXIR Hub and Nodes compete for grant funding from the European Union under Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, and Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI). EU projects support the work of Platforms and Communities.
3. National-Level Investments: ELIXIR Nodes are funded through national-level investments supporting national coordination, development and operation of services. Some Nodes also access EU Structural Funds.
4. International Funder Support: ELIXIR Nodes receive support from international funders such as the US National Institute of Health (NIH).
5. Foundation Funding: Some Nodes receive support from foundations such as the Wellcome Trust and Wallenberg Foundation.
6. Industry Engagement: Some ELIXIR Nodes generate modest revenue from industry partnerships, including software licensing (e.g., PLAZA platform licensed to companies in plant breeding, RING software licensed to Sanofi), training services to companies, and Knowledge Exchange Schemes with private sector.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

ELIXIR operates a distributed pan-European research infrastructure for life science data, coordinated through a central Hub at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridge, UK and 24 national Nodes across member countries. The infrastructure delivers software platforms, data registries, training portals, authentication services, and cloud/compute resources that enable life scientists to find, store, analyze, share, and manage large biological datasets. Key offerings include tool/workflow registries (bio.tools, WorkflowHub, BioContainers), analysis platforms (Galaxy), training portals (TeSS), authentication infrastructure (AAI/LS-AAI), and Core Data Resources for long-term data preservation.

Product overview

ELIXIR is Europe's distributed research infrastructure for life science data, operating as an intergovernmental organization with a Hub-and-Nodes model (24 member countries, 4 observers, 240+ research organizations). The infrastructure is organized around five interconnected Platforms (Compute, Data, Tools, Interoperability, Training) delivering coordinated services. The product portfolio includes: bio.tools (33,000+ tool registry), Galaxy/UseGalaxy.eu (web-based analysis with 2500+ tools), WorkflowHub (workflow registry), BioContainers (containerized software), OpenEBench (benchmarking), and TeSS (training portal aggregating resources from across Europe). Supporting infrastructure includes the Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI/LS-AAI), Core Data Resources, Deposition Databases, RDMkit, FAIR Cookbook, and Training Metrics Database. These products collectively enable researchers to find, analyze, share, and manage life science data across European borders.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• bio.tools A registry of software tools and data resources for life sciences that helps researchers find, select, and connect bioinformatics software and integrate it into workflows.
• Galaxy (UseGalaxy.eu) A web-based bioinformatics analysis platform providing access to 2,500+ tools, visualizations, and 200 reference genomes, enabling researchers to perform complex biological data analyses through an accessible cloud interface.
• WorkflowHub A registry for describing, sharing, and publishing scientific computational workflows, supporting reproducibility and discoverability of analysis pipelines.
• BioContainers A repository of containerized bioinformatics software that can be built into workflows and deployed across heterogeneous computational environments.
• OpenEBench A benchmarking platform for monitoring and evaluating bioinformatics software quality and performance.
• TeSS (Training e-Support System) ELIXIR's training portal that aggregates life science training materials, courses, and workflows from across Europe, providing a single gateway for researchers to discover and access bioinformatics training.
• Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI/LS-AAI) User access and identity management service providing LS-AAI for academia and industry, enabling consolidation of multiple identities (university, Google, ORCID) and REMS for resource entitlement approval workflows.
• FAIR Cookbook An online resource with recipes helping researchers make and maintain data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) in the life sciences.
• RDMkit Research Data Management guidelines and best practices helping researchers manage life science data throughout the data lifecycle.
• Core Data Resources European data resources of fundamental importance to life science research that are committed to long-term data preservation.
• ELIXIR Deposition Databases Recommended repositories for deposition of open life science experimental data, ensuring data accessibility and preservation.
• ELIXIR-SI eLearning Platform (EeLP) A single access point for dynamic educational resources, tools, and services for training events, including registration, compute infrastructure access, exams, communications, and certificates.
• Training Metrics Database A database for ELIXIR Training Coordinators to streamline collection, storage, and visualization of training quality and impact data.
• FAIRsharing A platform for searching databases and data policies by domain, species, and country, supporting standards discovery and adoption.

Quantifiable outcome

• Since 2019, ELIXIR's annual BioHackathon Europe has resulted in 43 preprints with combined total of over 14,000 downloads
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Scientifica Venture CapitalminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024ELIXIR Italy signed partnership agreement in September 2024 with Scientifica Venture Capital to promote technology transfer in life sciences. ELIXIR Italy provides scientific expertise and resources while Scientifica provides investment and industry connections.
• SanofiminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024BioComputingUP lab at University of Padova (ELIXIR Italy Node) renewed commercial licence agreement with Sanofi for RING (Residue Interaction Network Generator) software package.
• Researchalize (AstraZeneca)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024ELIXIR Italy joined forces with Researchalize by AstraZeneca to empower Italian biomedical research, connecting researchers with a platform to access resources, discover funding and network.
• Australian BioCommonsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023ELIXIR and the Australian BioCommons announced extension of collaboration strategy to 2028, expanding international partnerships beyond Europe.
• VEIL.AIminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023ELIXIR Finland has a project with VEIL.AI on health data anonymization, synthetic data and pseudonymization service technology, part of the ELIXIR Knowledge Exchange Scheme.
• JADBiominorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021ELIXIR Greece (Biomedical Sciences Research Center 'Alexander Fleming') teamed up with JADBio to massively analyse omics data spanning 31 diseases, achieving high predictive performance with few biomarkers.
• PetaGeneminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020ELIXIR Luxembourg collaborated with PetaGene on best practices for storing genomic data including compression and encryption workshop in 2020.
• Bigpicture IMI2 ProjectminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014ELIXIR Finland is a partner of the Bigpicture IMI2 project providing data for building a central repository for digital pathology.
• EMBL-EBI (European Molecular Biology Laboratory)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013EMBL-EBI is the only international Node in ELIXIR (not associated with a country). It houses the ELIXIR Hub in the South Building at Wellcome Genome Campus. EMBL carries out activities on behalf of ELIXIR that require EMBL's legal personality, allowing ELIXIR to benefit from EMBL's privileges and immunities as an international treaty organisation.
• ELIXIR Member Countries (23 national Nodes)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 201323 countries established ELIXIR Nodes, each a network of research institutes. Countries joined from 2013 onwards: EMBL-EBI, UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Estonia (2013); Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, Israel, Portugal, Finland (2014); France, Belgium (2015); Italy, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Ireland, Germany (2016); Hungary (2017); Spain (2017); Greece (2019); Slovakia (2025).

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• CyVerse: US NSF-funded life science cyberinfrastructure providing data storage, compute and analysis platforms to researchers; comparable to ELIXIR's Compute Platform and Tools Platform from a national infrastructure operator perspective.
• Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB): Switzerland's national bioinformatics organisation coordinating databases, tools and training across Swiss research institutes; very similar role to ELIXIR at Swiss national level, and ELIXIR Switzerland is itself a Node. Directly comparable as a national-scale federated bioinformatics infrastructure provider.
• Australian BioCommons: Australia's distributed bioinformatics infrastructure linking life science researchers to compute, tools and training; ELIXIR and Australian BioCommons explicitly extended their collaboration strategy through 2028, making them the closest international analogue in mission and structure.
• EMBL-EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute): EMBL-EBI houses the ELIXIR Hub on the Wellcome Genome Campus and is the only international Node; it provides the world's leading public bioinformatics data resources (e.g., UniProt, Ensembl, ENA). Functionally overlapping with ELIXIR in scope and audience, and partnership is core-tier.
• Galaxy Project: Open-source web-based bioinformatics analysis platform used by ELIXIR (UseGalaxy.eu); provides 2,500+ tools and 200 reference genomes. Highly comparable in user-facing research service and is tightly integrated with ELIXIR's Tools Platform.

Broad incumbents

• NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information): US federally funded bioinformatics resource providing literature, sequence, genomic and tool services (PubMed, GenBank, BLAST) for global researchers; the established incumbent ELIXIR is positioned against for international research audiences, but serves a broader mandate and population.

Regional players

• SciLifeLab (Sweden): Sweden's national life science laboratory providing genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics services and infrastructure. Operates as both a national Node for ELIXIR and a regional peer in capabilities and audience.

Emerging players

• NFDI (Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur): Germany's federated national research data infrastructure across multiple domains including life sciences (NFDI4Health, NFDI4Microbiota); comparable mission around FAIR data and cross-institution coordination, but broader scope and earlier-stage for life sciences than ELIXIR.

Others

• European Open Science Cloud (EOSC): EU-wide open science cloud for FAIR data and services across disciplines; ELIXIR runs EOSC projects (EOSC-ENTRUST, EOSC-EVERSE, EOSC-FIDELIS), making EOSC a sibling ecosystem and ecosystem-level coordinator rather than direct competitor.
• Global Biodata Coalition: International coalition of research funders that supports the long-term sustainability of Core Data Resources, including those identified through ELIXIR; adjacent enabler that provides coordinated funding for assets ELIXIR coordinates.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/elixireurope
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/elixir-europe

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about ELIXIR