New EU-funded research infrastructure for biology gets going

A new structural biology research infrastructure has just been launched, most likely meaning more breakthroughs in biomedical science are just around the corner. Fifteen of Europe’s leading structural biology research institutes have come together to provide access to some of the most advanced technology in the world to academic and commercial scientists across Europe.

The groundwork for establishing the network – titled ‘Instruct’ – was carried out with support from a EUR 4.5 million grant under the ‘Research Infrastructures’ Theme of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom have already signed up to the network, allowing researchers from these countries to start to access the shared technology.

Instruct was formally launched by the European Commission’s Director-General for Research and Innovation, Robert-Jan Smits, at a special ceremony in Brussels on 23 February. It is set to be a dynamic structural biology hub that provides an integrated infrastructure of cutting-edge technology, scientific expertise and pioneering training. The objective is to give European biologists a single point of access to all the technology and expertise they need to further their different research projects.

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For more information, please visit:

Instruct:

http://www.structuralbiology.eu