The Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre or NBIC (2003-2013) was a Dutch, government-funded organization, that coordinated all academic work on

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. NBIC consisted of programs for research (BioRange), for education (BioWise), and for support (BioAssist). NBIC partners are all

Dutch universities Dutch universities are supported by state funding (with the exception of University Nyenrode) so that universities do not have to rely on private funding to facilitate tuition. All citizens of the Netherlands who complete high school at the pre-a ...

and university hospitals, and some commercial entities. The NBIC central office was hosted by the Center for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics (CMBI) at the

Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre The Radboud University Medical Center (Dutch: ''Radboudumc''), is the teaching hospital affiliated with the Radboud University Nijmegen, in the city of Nijmegen in the eastern-central part of the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of N ...

History

In 2003 NBIC was launched as a

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organization, to strengthen and organize the bioinformatics research in the

. NBIC is one of the four enabling technology centres that were initiated by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI) to improve the

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

-based research in the Netherlands. The other three technology centres are: the

Netherlands Proteomics Centre The Netherlands Proteomics Centre (NPC) is a Dutch people, Dutch research center in the field of proteomics. The research is focused on the proteome, the entire set of proteins expressed by a genome, Cell (biology), cell, Tissue (biology), tissue ...

(NPC), the Netherlands Metabolomics Centre (NMC) and the Netherlands Consortium for Systems Biology (NCSB). Most services moved to the Dutch Techcentre for Life Sciences in 2015.

Funding

The Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre was funded by the

Dutch government The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy, and a decentralised unitary state.''Civil service systems in Western Europe'' edited by A. J. G. M. Bekke, ...

through the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI) and the BSIK(knowledge infrastructures) programme.

Support

The support department of NBIC, BioAssist, consists of task forces that bring together experts in the different fields of Bioinformatics. Together, these people identify common problems in their field that they set out to solve in a collaborative way. BioAssist also has a group, BioInformatics Research Support (BRS), that helps biological and medical professionals with short bioinformatics projects.

Education

The education part of NBIC, BioWise, organizes courses and trainings at different levels. They provide awareness training at schools, collaborate with the different bioinformatics education programs at the universities in the Netherlands, and organize trainings for

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

students. Also, subject-specific trainings and conferences are organized, either nationally or with other international partners like the

Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an academic not-for-profit foundation which federates bioinformatics activities throughout Switzerland. The institute was established on 30 March 1998 and its mission is to provide core bioinfor ...

Achievements

Organising Bioinformatics research

So far, NBIC has achieved its goal of bringing together the different bioinformatics research groups in the

. It is now also partnering up with Dutch universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in the LOBIN network. in July 2011, four UASes have joined.

Bioinformatics software

A wide variety of

bioinformatics software The list of bioinformatics software tools can be split up according to the license used: *List of proprietary bioinformatics software *List of open-source bioinformatics software Alternatively, here is a categorization according to the respective b ...

has been created by people involved in NBIC. NBIC also hosts a service to coordinate

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

development (Trac server with software releases and project documentation). Many tools are also made available through NBIC's own open

Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

server

Industrial links

First steps have been made to include commercial entities, among others, via the Bioinformatics Industrial Users Platform (BIUP). The BIUP, though still in its start-up phase in mid-2011, has already attracted partners such as

DSM DSM or dsm may refer to: Science and technology * Deep space maneuver * Design structure matrix or dependency structure matrix, a representation of a system or project * Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ** DSM-5, the fifth ed ...

Community Building

A large part of NBIC's efforts focus on developing new or strengthening existing bio-informatics communities. For example, NBIC hosted the 2011

Community Conference.Galaxy Community Conference 2011 homepage
/ref> The Netherlands Bioinformatics for Proteomics Platform (for short NBPP) is a joint initiative of the Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre (NBIC) and the

(NPC). The inaugural meeting of the Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET) was held at NBIC in November 2012.

References

{{Reflist Bioinformatics organizations Medical and health organisations based in the Netherlands Non-profit organisations based in the Netherlands 2003 establishments in the Netherlands Organizations established in 2003 Genomics