European Research Infrastructure Research Articles

Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure – ACTRIS, the European research infrastructure supporting atmospheric science

Abstract The Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS) officially became the 33rd European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) on April 25, 2023 with the support of 17 founding member and observer countries. As a pan-European legal organization, ACTRIS ERIC will coordinate the provision of data and data products on short-lived atmospheric constituents and clouds relevant to climate and air pollution over the next 15-20 years. ACTRIS was designed more than a decade ago, and its development was funded at national and European levels. It was included in the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap in 2016 and subsequently, in the national infrastructure roadmaps of European countries. It became a landmark of the ESFRI roadmap in 2021. The purpose of this paper is to describe the mission of ACTRIS, its added value to the community of atmospheric scientists, providing services to academia as well as the public and private sectors, and to summarize its main achievements. The present publication serves as a reference document for ACTRIS, its users and the scientific community as a whole. It provides the reader with relevant information and an overview on ACTRIS governance and services, as well as a summary of the main scientific achievements of the last 20 years. The paper concludes with an outlook on the upcoming challenges for ACTRIS and the strategy for its future evolution.

Rewarding mobility? Towards a realistic European policy agenda for academics at risk

This article maps from a critical and comparative perspective how scholars at risk are currently being integrated into the European research infrastructure, as well as in various EU and non-EU Member States. The focus is on three countries ranging from older to newer EU members to one non-EU member state—Hungary, Romania and the United Kingdom—as well as on EU-level organisations. We draw on twelve in-depth interviews conducted with key stakeholders involved in the process of academic migration (non-governmental organisations, EU and national level actors) to identify key issues concerning academics at risk. Finally, we call for a robust EU-level response to an issue that is currently inadequately addressed by national governments, professional associations and NGOs. As we argue, the focus on mobility as a factor supporting research excellence in the regular European research infrastructure can have negative unintended outcomes for scholars at risk. For many of them, rewarding mobility can entail the threat of losing their legal status in temporary places of migration. What is needed is a nuanced approach for scholars at risk in a diverse range of situations, which should involve closer cooperation between international academic bodies and EU policy makers, and complement support for those who need to escape to third countries with the offer of remote work in the country where they are able to obtain a secure residence permit.

Dark Matter Science Project

Dark Matter Science Project

The KM3NeT4RR project in Bologna

KM3NeT4RR is a project for the Kilometre Cube Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT), which is a large European research infrastructure composed of two underwater large-scale neutrino telescopes, ARCA and ORCA, located in the Mediterranean Sea off-shore Portopalo di Capo Passero (Sicily, Italy) and Toulon (Provence, France) respectively. The telescopes are mainly designed for studying cosmic neutrinos and neutrino properties, but the observatory infrastructure also offers opportunity for geological and marine sciences research, providing instrumentation connections for long-term, high-bandwidth and continuous data collection. The KM3NeT4RR project, led by the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, has started at the end of 2022 and during the following 30 months it includes a set of activities aimed at extending the ARCA seafloor network and the Italian on-shore facilities, building and operating an additional significant number of detection elements, thus significantly advancing the final completion of the infrastructure. Within this project, the KM3NeT laboratories present at the INFN-Bologna section are going to be expanded and a new setup will be created that will serve for both the detectors calibration studies and for deep-sea environmental research.

Design, quality and validation of the EU-OPENSCREEN fragment library poised to a high-throughput screening collection.

The EU-OPENSCREEN (EU-OS) European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) is a multinational, not-for-profit initiative that integrates high-capacity screening platforms and chemistry groups across Europe to facilitate research in chemical biology and early drug discovery. Over the years, the EU-OS has assembled a high-throughput screening compound collection, the European Chemical Biology Library (ECBL), that contains approximately 100 000 commercially available small molecules and a growing number of thousands of academic compounds crowdsourced through our network of European and non-European chemists. As an extension of the ECBL, here we describe the computational design, quality control and use case screenings of the European Fragment Screening Library (EFSL) composed of 1056 mini and small chemical fragments selected from a substructure analysis of the ECBL. Access to the EFSL is open to researchers from both academia and industry. Using EFSL, eight fragment screening campaigns using different structural and biophysical methods have successfully identified fragment hits in the last two years. As one of the highlighted projects for antibiotics, we describe the screening by Bio-Layer Interferometry (BLI) of the EFSL, the identification of a 35 μM fragment hit targeting the beta-ketoacyl-ACP synthase 2 (FabF), its binding confirmation to the protein by X-ray crystallography (PDB 8PJ0), its subsequent rapid exploration of its surrounding chemical space through hit-picking of ECBL compounds that contain the fragment hit as a core substructure, and the final binding confirmation of two follow-up hits by X-ray crystallography (PDB 8R0I and 8R1V).

The suitability of atmospheric oxygen measurements to constrain western European fossil-fuel CO2 emissions and their trends

Abstract. Atmospheric measurements of the O2/N2 ratio and the CO2 mole fraction (combined into the conceptual tracer “Atmospheric Potential Oxygen”, APO) over continents have been proposed as a constraint on CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel burning. Here we assess the suitability of such APO data to constrain anthropogenic CO2 emissions in western Europe, with particular focus on their decadal trends. We use an inversion of atmospheric transport to estimate spatially and temporally explicit scaling factors on a bottom-up fossil-fuel emissions inventory. Based on the small number of currently available observational records, our CO2 emissions estimates show relatively large apparent year-to-year variations, exceeding the expected uncertainty of the bottom-up inventory and precluding the calculation of statistically significant trends. We were not able to trace the apparent year-to-year variations back to particular properties of the APO data. Inversion of synthetic APO data, however, confirms that data information content and degrees of freedom are sufficient to successfully correct a counterfactual prior. Larger sets of measurement stations, such as the recently started APO observations from the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) European research infrastructure, improve the constraint and may ameliorate possible problems with local signals or with measurement or model errors at the stations. We further tested the impact of uncertainties in the O2:CO2 stoichiometries of fossil-fuel burning and land biospheric exchange and found they are not fundamental obstacles to estimating decadal trends in fossil-fuel CO2 emissions, though further work on fossil-fuel O2:CO2 stoichiometries seems necessary.

EU-SOLARIS: The European Research Infrastructure Consortium for CSP Technologies

After many years of fruitful collaboration in the field of research infrastructures (RIs) for concentrated solar power/solar thermal energy applications, several European countries decided to apply to the European Commission to go a step forward and create a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), a new legal form of association which poses a number of advantages in the endeavour for a further development of this technology in Europe at all levels.
 This new consortium, EU-SOLARIS ERIC, is likely to be legally implemented in October 2022, after a long negotiation and evaluation process, where the support of the respective Governmental research agencies of the countries involved has been crucial.
 EU-SOLARIS ERIC will be a legal entity and its main goal will be the improvement of the interoperability, accessibility and quality of services provided by the existing European research infrastructures to the CSP/STE research communities and industrial stakeholders.
 Although the current Members of the EU-SOLARIS consortium are Germany, France, Cyprus and Spain (Statutory Seat at Plataforma Solar de Almería, Spain), plus Portugal as an Observer, it is open to any other country willing to participate as Member or Observer.

Corticosteroids versus clobazam for treatment of children with epileptic encephalopathy with spike-wave activation in sleep (RESCUE ESES): a multicentre randomised controlled trial

Epileptic encephalopathy with spike-wave activation in sleep (EE-SWAS) is a rare syndrome associated with cognitive and behavioural regression. On the basis of mostly small observational and retrospective studies, corticosteroids and clobazam are often considered the most effective treatments for this syndrome. We aimed to compare cognitive outcomes of children with EE-SWAS 6 months after starting treatment with either corticosteroids or clobazam. We did a multicentre, randomised controlled trial at eight tertiary referral centres for rare epilepsies in seven European countries. Children were eligible to participate if they were aged 2-12 years, were diagnosed with EE-SWAS within 6 months before inclusion, and had not been treated with corticosteroids or clobazam previously. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to treatment with corticosteroids (either continuous treatment with 1-2 mg/kg per day of prednisolone orally or pulse treatment with 20 mg/kg per day of methylprednisolone intravenously for 3 days every 4 weeks) or clobazam (0·5-1·2 mg/kg per day orally). The primary outcome was cognitive functioning after 6 months of treatment, which was assessed by either the intelligence quotient (IQ) responder rate (defined as improvement of ≥11·25 IQ points) or the cognitive sum score responder rate (defined as improvement of ≥0·75 points). Safety was assessed by number of adverse events and serious adverse events. Data were analysed in the intention-to-treat population, which included all children as randomised who had primary outcome data available at 6 months. The trial is registered with the Dutch Trial Register, Toetsingonline, NL43510.041.13, and the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN42686094. The trial was terminated prematurely because enrolment of the predefined number of 130 participants was deemed not feasible. Between July 22, 2014, and Sept 3, 2022, 45 children were randomly assigned to either corticosteroids (n=22) or clobazam (n=23); two children assigned clobazam dropped out before 6 months and were excluded from the intention-to-treat analysis. At the 6-month assessment, an improvement of 11·25 IQ points or greater was reported for five (25%) of 20 children assigned corticosteroids versus zero (0%) of 18 assigned clobazam (risk ratio [RR] 10·0, 95% CI 1·2-1310·4; p=0·025). An improvement of 0·75 points or more in the cognitive sum score was recorded for one (5%) of 22 children assigned corticosteroids versus one (5%) of 21 children assigned clobazam (RR 1·0, 95% CI 0·1-11·7, p=0·97). Adverse events occurred in ten (45%) of 22 children who received corticosteroids, most frequently weight gain, and in 11 (52%) of 21 children who received clobazam, most often fatigue and behavioural disturbances. Occurrence of adverse events did not differ between groups (RR 0·8, 95% CI 0·4-1·4; p=0·65). Serious adverse events occurred in one child in the corticosteroid group (hospitalisation due to laryngitis) and in two children in the clobazam group (hospitalisation due to seizure aggravation, and respiratory tract infection). No deaths were reported. The trial was terminated prematurely, and the target sample size was not met, so our findings must be interpreted with caution. Our data indicated an improvement in IQ outcomes with corticosteroids compared with clobazam treatment, but no difference was seen in cognitive sum score. Our findings strengthen those from previous uncontrolled studies that support the early use of corticosteroids for children with EE-SWAS. EpilepsieNL, WKZ fund, European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network, and Ming fund.

Proposed synergies between oceanography and metrology

Accurate and traceable measurements are required to understand ocean processes, to address pressing societal challenges, such as climate change and to sustainably manage marine resources. Although scientific and engineering research has resulted in advanced methods to measure Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) there is a need for cross comparison of the techniques and traceability to recognized standards. Metrological laboratories are experienced in accredited methods and assessment of methodology. An EU INFRAIA-02-2020: Integrating Activities for Starting Communities project MINKE (Metrology for Integrated marine maNagement and Knowledge-transfer nEtwork https://minke.eu) brings European marine science and metrology Research Infrastructures together to identify synergies and create an innovative approach to Quality Assurance of oceanographic data. Quality depends both on the accuracy (that can be provided through the metrology component) and the completeness of the data sets. The collaboration between different Marine Research Infrastructures (RIs) places a fundamental role on assuring the completeness of the datasets, particularly at global scales. The MINKE project encourages enhancement through collaboration of national metrology laboratories and the oceanographic community. Metrological assessment of the accuracy and uncertainties within multidisciplinary ocean observations will provide data that are key to delivering policy information. Objectives across all the RIs are to facilitate ocean observation and build wider synergies. MINKE will investigate these synergies, then introduce metrology to the core of various EOV measurements. Currently the marine RIs cover laboratory and field operations, from the surface seafloor, coastal waters to deep sea, fixed ocean stations to ship and autonomous vehicle operations to ships of opportunity, and flux stations focusing on carbonate system variables. The nexus of these operations is the focal point for coordinated improvement of ocean observing methods. Measurement intercomparisons, traceability and uncertainty assessments should be at the core of the scientific observations. Specifically, MINKE will work with RIs and Metrology Institutes to improve the quality of dissolved oxygen, carbonate system, chlorophyll-fluorescence, ocean sound and current meter measurements, through access to metrology laboratories, Transnational Access and intercomparison studies across existing marine consortia and RIs. MINKE will also promote the development of absolute salinity observation, and improvements in marine litter measurements.

Building up public health resilience to tackle climate change in an urban context

Abstract Background By 2050, about 70% of the global population will be living in cities. At the same time the health burden due to climate change is increasing in urban areas e.g. as heat waves become more frequent and prolonged and the socio-economic inequalities increase. Also, health systems are faced with multiple stress tests due to multimorbidity, lack of health personnel, and the direct and indirect health impacts of the climate crisis, falling disproportionately on disadvantaged populations. Gaining a better understanding of the climate-health-equity nexus represents huge potential for health policy to contribute to climate change mitigation and for climate policy to reduce disease burden while tackling socio-economic inequalities and health inequity. Objective Building on a systematic literature review, this paper presents a framework of the interdependencies between the climate crisis, public health, and social aspects and applies it to urban areas. It then links the domains identified with data requirements at the European level and highlights potential pitfalls for European health information systems, and all six building blocks of health systems following WHO's framework on climate resilience, from governance to health workforce to early warning systems. Results The review showcases risks associated with acting in “policy-silos”, neglecting the interactions between climate, health and inequality, compounding negative consequences both for planetary health and human health. Our data framework shows that the interdependencies described open up various opportunities for a European research infrastructure, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and in a transformation towards more health promotion. Conclusions A European Green Deal with a strengthened focus on public health would have the potential to address these challenges, in cities and beyond. All health system building blocks need to contribute to such a climate-health pact at the European level.

DiSSCo Prepare Project: Increasing the Implementation Readiness Levels of the European Research Infrastructure

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) is a new world-class Research Infrastructure (RI) for Natural Science Collections. The DiSSCo RI aims to create a new business model for one European collection that digitally unifies all European natural science assets under common access, curation, policies and practices that ensure that all the data is easily Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR principles). DiSSCo represents the largest ever formal agreement between natural history museums, botanic gardens and collection-holding institutions in the world. DiSSCo entered the European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures in 2018 and launched its main preparatory phase project (DiSSCo Prepare) in 2020. DiSSCo Prepare is the primary vehicle through which DiSSCo reaches the overall maturity necessary for its construction and eventual operation. DiSSCo Prepare raises DiSSCo’s implementation readiness level (IRL) across the five dimensions: technical, scientific, data, organisational and financial. Each dimension of implementation readiness is separately addressed by specific Work Packages (WP) with distinct targets, actions and tasks that will deliver DiSSCo’s Construction Masterplan. This comprehensive and integrated Masterplan will be the product of the outputs of all of its content related tasks and will be the project’s final output. It will serve as the blueprint for construction of the DiSSCo RI, including establishing it as a legal entity. DiSSCo Prepare builds on the successful completion of DiSSCo’s design study, ICEDIG and the outcomes of other DiSSCo-linked projects such as SYNTHESYS+ and MOBILISE. This paper is an abridged version of the original DiSSCo Prepare grant proposal. It contains the overarching scientific case for DiSSCo Prepare, alongside a description of our major activities.

Neutron dose assessment in laser-generated ultra-short pulsed fields.

ELI Beamlines is one of the pillars of the Extreme Light Infrastructure European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ELI ERIC), the European project aiming at building the next generation of high power lasers for fundamental research and industrial applications. Several high-power lasers are hosted by the ELI Beamlines facility. Even at a power lower than the nominal one, when interacting with a target, the laser can generate mixed ionizing radiation fields of unique nature. One of the major laser systems, High-repetition-rate advanced petawatt laser system (HAPLS) was already used in commissioning experiments. Detecting the neutrons generated during these experiments has been a challenging task, since certain difficulties were faced. First, the experimental conditions were frequently altered during the commissioning phase (such as laser beam parameters, experimental geometry or target type). Next, the extremely short duration of the ionizing radiation pulse generated by the laser (~10-14s) complicated the correct interpretation of the data provided by the detectors designed and calibrated in standard fields. Here, one commissioning experiment is described, together with the means of addressing the problem of the detection of the ionizing radiation and the lessons learned in this endeavour.

Embracing Open Science at DARIAH-EU: How Openness Became a Bridge Between Research Infrastructure Strategy and Research Realities in the Arts and Humanities

When it was founded in 2014, DARIAH-EU, the European digital research infrastructure for arts and humanities, recognized the importance of open science but did not place particular emphasis on it. In the time since, however, openness has come to rest at the heart of everything the infrastructure does. This piece will look at the process by which a research infrastructure comes to view itself as both a resource and champion for open science in their community, and how the contributions of such organizations can uniquely enhance openness in the arts and humanities.

The problem of ensuring the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures in today’s conditions

Problem setting. The research is devoted to the analysis of the problem of ensuring the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures, taking into account the challenges and threats that exist at the current stage. analysis of resent researches and publications. Today, aspects of the development of innovation systems and research infrastructures of the European Union and Ukraine are a topic for research of many foreign and domestic researchers. At the same time, the question of ensuring the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures in modern conditions remains relevant. Purpose of the research is to analyze the problem of ensuring the long-term sustainability of research infrastructures, taking into account the challenges and threats that exist at the present stage. Аrticle’s main body. The European framework programs made a significant contribution to the development of effective, open and effective use of national research infrastructures, and developed together with the European Strategic Forum of Research Infrastructures a consistent approach to the development of national investment policies in pan-European research infrastructures, which gave rise to the development of many European research infrastructures. Emphasis is placed on the fact that in order to maintain scientific excellence and competitiveness, it is necessary to ensure constant funding of both existing and new research infrastructure. It is concluded that it is necessary to promote synergy between funding instruments for research infrastructures (both European and national), to coordinate investments in research and innovation, improve access and translate research results for the benefit of society and the economy. Sufficient funding including adequate and sustainable funding models, required across the whole RI lifecycle to address the diversity of needs and the funding gaps, is indispensable for successful RI strategy. A joint effort combining European, national or other funding sources is vital for the healthy development of the pan-European RI ecosystem. For research infrastructures to remain relevant throughout the entire RI lifecycle, scientific excellence is the necessary condition, which becomes, together with adequate human resources, crucial when it comes to long-term persistence in the operational phase. Effective governance and sustainable long-term funding (public and private) are other key elements for ensuring long-term sustainability of research infrastructures at every stage in their lifecycle. All the long-term sustainability elements form a unique set, which should be considered and implemented as a general strategic guidance, and not only for ESFRI initiated Research infrastructures. conclusions and prospects for the development. Necessary from the development of the situation, in our opinion, it was expedient to start the preparation and implementation of the investment road map for the reconstruction of the scientific infrastructure of Ukraine. After all, the level of increasing the sustainability of research infrastructure remains an urgent issue for Europe and the world as a whole, in particular in the context of exiting the crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the economic and political situation.

Human Brain Project Partnering Projects Meeting: Status Quo and Outlook.

As the European Flagship Human Brain Project (HBP) ends in September 2023, a meeting dedicated to the Partnering Projects (PPs), a collective of independent research groups that partnered with the HBP, was held on September 4-7, 2022. The purpose of this meeting was to allow these groups to present their results, reflect on their collaboration with the HBP and discuss future interactions with the European Research Infrastructure (RI) EBRAINS that has emerged from the HBP. In this report, we share the tour-de-force that the Partnering Projects that were present in the meeting have made in furthering knowledge concerning various aspects of Brain Research with the HBP. We describe briefly major achievements of the HBP Partnering Projects in terms of a systems-level understanding of the functional architecture of the brain and its possible emulation in artificial systems. We then recapitulate open discussions with EBRAINS representatives about the evolution of EBRAINS as a sustainable Research Infrastructure for the Partnering Projects after the HBP, and also for the wider scientific community.

MBC and ECBL libraries: outstanding tools for drug discovery.

Chemical libraries have become of utmost importance to boost drug discovery processes. It is widely accepted that the quality of a chemical library depends, among others, on its availability and chemical diversity which help in rising the chances of finding good hits. In this regard, our group has developed a source for useful chemicals named Medicinal and Biological Chemistry (MBC) library. It originates from more than 30years of experience in drug design and discovery of our research group and has successfully provided effective hits for neurological, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. Moreover, in the last years, the European research infrastructure for chemical biology EU-OPENSCREEN has generated the European Chemical Biology library (ECBL) to be used as a source of hits for drug discovery. Here we present and discuss the updated version of the MBC library (MBC v.2022), enriched with new scaffolds and containing more than 2,500 compounds together with ECBL that collects about 100,000 small molecules. To properly address the improved potentialities of the new version of our MBC library in drug discovery, up to 44 among physicochemical and pharmaceutical properties have been calculated and compared with those of other well-known publicly available libraries. For comparison, we have used ZINC20, DrugBank, ChEMBL library, ECBL and NuBBE along with an approved drug library. Final results allowed to confirm the competitive chemical space covered by MBC v.2022 and ECBL together with suitable drug-like properties. In all, we can affirm that these two libraries represent an interesting source of new hits for drug discovery.

Characterisation of a self-sustained, water-based condensation particle counter for aircraft cruising pressure level operation

Abstract. Aerosol particle number concentration measurements are a crucial part of aerosol research. Vertical profile measurements and high-altitude/low-pressure performance of the respective instruments become more important for remote sensing validation and a vital tool for the observation of climate variables. This study tests the new, commercially available water condensation particle counter (MAGIC 210-LP) for the deployment at aircraft cruising pressure levels that the European research infrastructure IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System; http://www.iagos.org, last access: 2 May 2023) is aiming for by operating measurement instrumentation onboard passenger aircraft. We conducted laboratory experiments for conditions to simulate passenger aircraft flight altitude at operation pressure. We demonstrate that this type of water condensation particle counter shows excellent agreement with a butanol-based instrument used in parallel. A Faraday cup aerosol electrometer serves as the reference instrument. Experiments are performed with test aerosol ammonium sulfate and fresh combustion soot at pressure levels ranging from 700 to 200 hPa. For soluble particles like ammonium sulfate, the 50 % detection efficiency cut-off diameter (D50) is around 5 nm and does not differ significantly for all performed experiments. For non-soluble fresh soot particles, the D50 cut-off diameter of approximately 10 nm does not vary substantially as a function of pressure, whereas the 90 % detection efficiency cut-off diameter D90 increases from 19 nm at 700 hPa to 37 nm at 200 hPa. The overall counting efficiency for particles larger than 40 nm reaches 100 % for working pressures of 200 hPa and higher.

The CLARIN infrastructure as an interoperable language technology platform for SSH and beyond

AbstractCLARIN is a European Research Infrastructure Consortium developing and providing a federated and interoperable platform to support scientists in the field of the Social Sciences and Humanities in carrying-out language-related research. This contribution provides an overview of the entire infrastructure with a particular focus on tool interoperability, ease of access to research data, tools and services, the importance of sharing knowledge within and across (national) communities, and community building. By taking into account FAIR principles from the very beginning, CLARIN succeeded in becoming a successful example of a research infrastructure that is actively used by its members. The benefits CLARIN members reap from their infrastructure secure a future for their common good that is both sustainable and attractive to partners beyond the original target groups.

Infrastructuring European scientific integration: Heterogeneous meanings of the European biobanking infrastructure BBMRI-ERIC.

While transnational research infrastructure projects long preceded the formal integration process that created the European Union, their advancement is an increasingly central part of EU research policy and of European integration in general. This paper analyses the Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure-European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC) as a recent example of institutionalized scientific collaboration in Europe that has formally been established as part of EU science policy. BBMRI-ERIC, a network of European biobanks, is expected to contribute to both European science and European integration. Yet its achievements in these domains are interpreted differently by various actors involved. This paper draws on STS conceptualizations of infrastructures as relational, experimental, and promissory assemblages. These support the formulation of a working definition of research infrastructures that in turn helps to explore the heterogeneous meanings attributed to BBMRI-ERIC. The paper describes the creation of this distributed European research infrastructure, and divergent understandings of what it means for BBMRI-ERIC to be distributed, to be European and to be a research infrastructure. This analysis demonstrates how building a research infrastructure is also an effort to define what it means to be European-a process in which what is European about science and what science can do for Europe is continuously (re-)imagined, contested and negotiated.

The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories Presents Abstracts from Its Annual Meeting

Biopreservation and BiobankingAhead of Print AbstractsFree AccessThe International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories Presents Abstracts from Its Annual Meeting“Come As You Are: Building Biobanking Bridges” In‐Person: May 3–6, 2023 Seattle, Washington Virtual: June 6–7, 2023Published Online:14 Apr 2023https://doi.org/10.1089/bio.2023.29118.abstractsAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail The abstracts that follow demonstrate the broad range of timely issues addressed in the contributed Oral and Poster presentations at ISBER's 2023 Annual Meeting & Exhibits.Oral AbstractO‐01 Accelerating Translational Research by Enabling Access to Specimens and DatasetsS. Joshi1, E. Matzke2, D. Galipeau31Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States, 2Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 3Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United StatesStatement of the Problem: Finding appropriate clinical specimens and associated data often causes bottlenecks in the translational research pipeline. Often investigators procure specimens through only one or a small number of sources which often have limited volume of participants and demographics of the patient population. Seemingly paradoxical, groups with large numbers of banked specimens often struggle to increase awareness and use of their collected specimens, which can lead to limited return on investment for high infrastructure costs.Proposed Solution: To address the above‐mentioned challenges the Specimen & Data Acquisition Network (SAN) was formed in 2019 to increase opportunities for resource exchange in the Pacific Northwest region (Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia). The concept of SAN, a hub and spoke network to speed sharing of resources and ideas, originated in response to sparse specimen resources within our translational research program which was a key bottleneck to research endeavors. Building on existing local connections and those from our research network in other academic institutions, we began collaborations with 7 additional institutions that were aligned with our objectives and goals. SAN serves as a liaison for investigators to leverage collective resources and works to support researchers in their biobanking activities. SAN is a conduit for collaborative science across the regional translational research community.Conclusions: Currently, the SAN consists of 10 member organizations, each with representation on the governance committee. SAN began serving investigators in 2020 and, to date, has received 80 requests and connected more than 40 investigators to critical project resources spanning 12 institutions. SAN works with researchers to provide support across 6 service areas: 1) Access to specimens, 2) Access to datasets, 3) Data Management Support, 4) Research Connections, 5) Regulatory Guidance, and 6) Resource Lifecycle Management. These supportive services are catered to give researchers more time to focus on their next big discovery. Five SAN member institutions are signatory to an umbrella material/data transfer agreement that has expedited resource sharing. We envision that this will be a valuable resource for the translational research community.O‐02 Power of Consortium Shared Resources When External Threats OccurS. Hume4, 1, S. Higgins1, 2, A. J. Mountain1, 3, C. Gilfillan4, W. Ng1, 21Victorian Cancer Biobank Consortium, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3Austin Health Tissue Bank, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia, 4Eastern Health Tissue Bank, Eastern Health, Box Hill, Victoria, AustraliaStatement of Problem: The Eastern Health Tissue Bank (EHTB) is a hospital‐integrated cancer biobank and a member of Victorian Cancer Biobank (VCB) Consortium. In 2021, the biobank responded to several external threats that affected daily operations. These included a cyber‐threat incident at the hosting institution and multiple COVID‐19‐related disruptions as the city experienced one of the longest pandemic lockdowns globally.Unplanned events can severely and suddenly restrict biobanking activities, and small biobanks require support to ensure sustainability and business continuity.Proposed Solution: As part of the VCB Consortium, the EHTB has a strong resilience and ability to respond to external threats or incidents. As a hub‐and‐spoke Consortium (comprising a central lead agency with five cancer tissue banks), the VCB utilises shared resources to strengthen business continuity.This presentation depicts two scenarios (cyber threat and pandemic) which demonstrate the combined use of tools across a networked biobank to reduce risks and impacts from large‐scale organisational disruptions.Three Consortium‐wide tools were utilised:1) A robust Business Continuity Plan, incorporating key stakeholders' responsibilities in risk management.2) A Consortium Business Plan with local (institution) and networked (consortium) goals.3) Implementation of harmonised Standardised Operating Procedures (SOPs).Scenario Outcomes Included:1) Central Operations “Hub” provided immediate contingency support as part of a framework for rapid response/recovery, including facilitating communications with stakeholders.2) A partner “Spoke” Site allowed EHTB staff access to Biobank shared databases, group business communication platforms, and shared biospecimen storage.3) Harmonised Consortium SOPs allowed large‐scale multisite dispatches to still be completed.Conclusions: In responding to external threat incidents, a robust business continuity plan and immediate access to shared resources enabled the EHTB to retain some functionality. If the EHTB had been a standalone biobank, capacity to operate would have been diminished, resulting in the loss or suspension of activity.The resources described cannot be underestimated in their effectiveness when an external threat occurs.O‐03 The Qualification in Biorepository Science (QBRS) Examination: Progress Report on its Global ReachB. Schacter1, 2, D. Simeon‐Dubach31Medical Oncology and Hematology, CancerCare Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 2Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 3medservice Daniel Simeon Dubach, Walchwil, ZG, SwitzerlandBackground: The importance of quality parameters in biobanking of biological materials like human tissues has been emphasized in the past: Biobanking standards by ISO (ISO 20387), CAP accreditation, Best Practices (ISBER Best Practices 4th ed.), OECD standards, and Standard Operating Practices and Policies by CTRNet were developed to address these challenges.While these procedures are proving invaluable to biobanks to ensure that their processes for accessing, processing, and distributing biobanked materials result in reproducibility and quality performance, they do not address the question of quality performance in the biobanking professionals themselves.Methods: The International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) and ASCP BOC (American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Certification) as two leading organisations in their fields joined forces to develop the QBRS (Qualification in Biorepository Science) examination, in order to further enhance reproducible and sustainable quality biobanking in biobanking professionals. The exam is administered online and is unique in its field.Well trained and skilled staff are essential to ensure high quality biospecimens for reproducible results in precision medicine, biomarker development, and biomedical research as a whole, while aiming for sustainable biobanking activities.Results: To date, over 58 individuals in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, Wales, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Costa Rica, and the USA have taken and passed the exam to qualify for the QBRS, demonstrating its global appeal.Conclusions: The QBRS has become the standard which defines the required level of knowledge and skill in biobanking professionals that will assure sustained quality and reproducibility in biobanking laboratories worldwide. Successful applicants have acknowledged that achieving the QBRS makes them more desirable in hiring competitions and enhances their career trajectory. Conversely, biobanks that hire a QBRS qualified biobanker have acknowledged that they are striving for quality in their biobanking operation. The QBRS qualification establishes that the biobank in which the qualified biobanker works is one that promotes and establishes quality within its biobanking staff. Biobank directors have indicated that the QBRS exam provides further impetus for professional training for their staff.O‐04 A New Tool to Match Organ, Tissue, and Eye Post‐mortem Donors to Research Project CriteriaK. D. Kunkle, G. H. Grossman, T. Cattell, A. AbbottPrecision Ocular Biobank, Advancing Sight Network, Birmingham, Alabama, United StatesBackground: Post‐mortem repositories recover organs, tissues, and eyes for research from authorized donors. However, due to the rapid nature of the donation process conflicting with the laborious task of matching donors to research project criteria, organizations miss opportunities to identify donors for prospective recovery. The ReSync app was developed by the Precision Ocular Biobank to assist in the real‐time identification of research donors at the initial point of the referral call.Methods: ReSync is an app built in Claris FileMaker 19, a low‐code relational database engine. Although ReSync is a closed system, open‐source functionality of Claris FileMaker allows it to universally connect to external donation referral databases. Research project criteria are entered into a table in ReSync prior to activation. Exclusion and inclusion criteria in categories such as donor demographics, medical history, and referral status act as triggers to match with donor information. Once active, referral coordinators enter donor information into the host database during the initial call from the hospital with a recent or impending death. Filtering occurs through connecting pairs of fields in tables in ReSync and the host database to validate or invalidate a donor candidate against each project. When a match between a project and donor occurs, a flag alerts the coordinator in real‐time. Matching projects appear in a pop‐up window, and referral coordinators can then consult with research specialists or directly assign the case to one of the projects and initiate recovery dispatch.Results: Since its employment, ReSync has allowed the Precision Ocular Biobank to expand its open research requests from 3 to 18 at any given point, representing a six‐fold increase in concomitant projects. This also led to a dramatically decrease in the time a donor was matched to a project, from twenty minutes to five (400% decrease). Even with more projects open simultaneously, request fulfillment time decreased by 25%.Conclusions: Low‐code, automated donor matching solutions allow post‐mortem repositories with limited software developing capability to better fulfil prospective research requests. While simultaneously reducing missed opportunities and eligibility times, programs like ReSync allow for the expansion of enrolled projects.O‐05 Determining Pre‐analytical Variables and Molecular Determinants to Ensure High Quality of Luxor BiobankN. Kordy, S. Ezzat, S. Mahmoud, R. Mohamed, A. Hagag, A. M. Gamal, M. M. Saady, A. SalehResearch Department, Shefa Al Orman Hospital, Luxor, EgyptBackground: Biobank sample preparation methods must ensure long‐term functionality of the products obtained. Preanalytical variables affect the integrity of the biospecimens, and results of analyses. The quality of nucleic acids has a major importance for molecular biology techniques used in genetic analysis. Quality indicators are the tool to measure these parameters; purity and integrity are the determinants for DNA quality. This study aims to determine the quality of SOH Biobank (SOHB) by independently evaluating the preanalytical variables in terms of measurement of processing time, aliquots position audit, and the quality of DNA samples.Methodology: SOHB biospecimen collection is performed after SOH‐IRB approval. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) were written with strict adherence by the team. Blood samples are collected after participant recruitment in the biobank program and obtaining informed consent. After blood collection, the blood is processed within one‐hour and stored in ‐80 degree Celsius freezers. Quality control was determined first, through recording sample withdrawal, receiving, and processing time. Second, aliquots position audits were performed manually on recruited patients for the last 6 months of 2021 to ensure 100% accurate aliquots position, Finally, DNA extracted from buffy coat samples was stored in the duration of 01‐2017 to 02‐2022 using QIAamp DNA kit (Qiagen). Concentration and purity are measured by spectrophotometer (Multisky scan, Thermofisher). Pure DNA ratio should be between 1.8 to 2.0; a higher ratio reveals DNA degradation, while a lower ratio indicates protein contamination.Results: Mean value of processing time for 6600 samples is calculated to ensure that samples are processed and stored in ‐80 degree Celsius freezers within 1 hour of sample withdrawal. Results showed the mean value is 23 ± 0.08 minutes. Manual aliquots position audit was performed for samples stored from July to December 2021; 1087 cases showed 96% accuracy, while 4% aliquot misassigned position inside box. Purity detection for 980 samples out of 6600 samples were analyzed and showed a mean of A260/A280ratio of 1.8 ± 0.025.Conclusion: SOHB quality control results are satisfactory ensuring that SOHB can provide high‐quality samples for genomic studies. Quality control should be performed in a regular manner to ensure the appropriate management of the samples, avoiding low confidence in results, high costs, and sample wasting.O‐06 MIRRI‐ERIC: A Pan‐European Research Infrastructure for Making Microbial Science and Innovation HappenR. Aznar1, M. Bosschaerts2, N. Lima3, L. Soares41Departamento de Microbiología y Ecología and Colección Española de Cultivos Tipo (CECT), Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain, 2BCCM Coordination Cell, Belgian Science Policy, Brussels, Belgium, 3CEB‐Universidade do Minho, Micoteca da Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal, 4MIRRI‐ERIC Central Coordinating Unit, MIRRI‐ERIC, Braga, PortugalStatement of the Problem: Several hurdles hamper microbial research and cause inefficient, ineffective, and costly science and innovation: difficulty to access strains cited in papers and databases; sharing of unverified strains; gaps in the current offer; fragmentation of resources, data, services, and expertise; and deficient support to individual culture collections (CCs).Proposed Solution: The Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure ‐ European Research Infrastructure Consortium (MIRRI‐ERIC) has been created as a pan‐European distributed research infrastructure, with the goal of solving/mitigating these bottlenecks, promoting complementarity, reducing redundancy, and continuously improving the capacity of its Partner Microbial domain Biological Resource Centres (mBRCs). MIRRI brings together ∼50 mBRCs, CCs, and research institutes from ten European countries working for the preservation, systematic investigation, provision, and valorisation of microbial resources and biodiversity, with a special focus on the domains of Health & Food, Agro‐Food, and Environment & Energy.MIRRI serves the bioscience and the bioindustry communities by facilitating the access, through a single point, to a catalogue of 400,000+ high‐quality microbial resources, such as bacteria, cyanobacteria, archaea, yeasts, filamentous fungi, micro‐algae, bacteriophages, viruses, and other microbiological material, such as microbiomes, plasmids, and genomic DNA. The MIRRI Information System will also provide users with resources' associated data, as available – e.g., taxonomy, ecology, pathogenicity, morphology, physiology, chemical characterization, DNA barcoding, or genomics.Based on its partner organisations' state‐of‐the‐art facilities/equipment and top‐level expertise, MIRRI also offers its users a diverse catalogue of high‐quality services, including pipelines of integrated, product‐oriented services made available as tailor‐made, turnkey solutions.Conclusions: The resources, services, and expertise provided by MIRRI and its partners can help researchers and bioindustries deliver the maximum value and impacts from their projects, technologies, and products.MIRRI is continuously engaged in enlarging its coverage in Europe and beyond. EU Member States, associated countries, third countries other than associated countries, and intergovernmental organisations may become a Member or an Observer of MIRRI‐ERIC. Individual organisations may become Partners of MIRRI‐ERIC.O‐07 Developing Genomic and Biomaterials Resources for Establishing Nonhuman Primate Models of Human DiseaseE. J. Vallender1, 2, S. M. Peterson3, A. Lewis3, A. J. Ericsen4, 5, K. G. Ray3, B. N. Bimber3, B. Ferguson31The University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, United States, 2Tulane National Primate Research Center, Covington, Louisiana, United States, 3Oregon Health & Science University Oregon National Primate Research Center, Beaverton, Oregon, United States, 4Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 5Emory National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, Georgia, United StatesBackground: Animal models of human disease play a vital role in biomedical research and therapeutic development. Nonhuman primates, in particular rhesus macaques, share behavioral, anatomical, physiological, and genetic similarities with humans that make them excellent translational models. The wealth of information developed on these animals through diverse research efforts can be leveraged through interconnected repositories of phenotypic data, biomaterials, and genomic information. Through the development of a centralized framework it is possible to accelerate the generation of nonhuman primate models of human disease and effect vital synergies that go beyond individual laboratories or research programs.Methods: The macaque Genotype and Phenotype (mGAP) resource serves as a repository for genomic data derived from rhesus macaques, largely those found at NIH‐funded Primate Research Centers. A standardized bioinformatic pipeline is used to call single nucleotide variation (SNV) and to cross reference human data on regulatory elements, disease‐associated variation, and evolutionary conservation. SNVs are also annotated using variant effect prediction tools. Data are made openly available to the research community both in aggregate as well as at the individual animal level. This information can then be tied back to specific animal health records, phenotypic information, and biomaterials through the contributing centers.Results: mGAP currently houses genomic information from 2,985 rhesus macaques including nearly 52 million variants. Of these, 11.5 thousand overlap with human ClinVar annotations and 33.2 thousand overlap with GWAS associations housed in GRASP. Many more, 125 thousand, are predicted deleterious by Polyphen2 or high impact by SnpEff. Coupled with phenotypic information derived from animal health records and pathology reports, spontaneously occurring genetic models of multiple rare human diseases have been identified and are being used for novel therapeutic development and biomarker discovery.Conclusions: Through the integration of genomic and phenotypic information, rhesus macaques are being developed and harnessed for translationally important nonhuman primate animal models. These efforts can occur at scale only through resources that bring together diverse data and research expertise while still allowing for the connection to individual animals and samples.O‐08 AI in Medicine Based on Biobank Data ‐ New Opportunities and (Not) Known RisksK. SargsyanInternational Biobanking and Education, Medical University of Graz, Graz, STMK, AustriaThe possibilities for improving effectiveness and interoperability clearly show the directions in which BBs will develop soon. Today, virtual links between different DAs allow an exchange of data and samples, which previously could only occur with great effort and long waiting times or even rejections of queries, have decreased. Furthermore, the notion of a biological “sample” is extended to imaging samples, which multiplies the amount and dimensionality of the data obtained and thus provides biobanks with a more complete picture of individual patients and entire disease patterns. With the integration of digitalization into biobanks, a steady flow of data is ensured that, in the best case, does not cease for the duration of a patient's lifetime. This steady flow of data updates and exchange enables better tracking of the health status of individual patients and populations and can provide far‐reaching and as yet unknown information for the epidemiology of certain diseases in terms of course, treatment response, and prognosis. Particularly concerning genotype‐phenotype predictions, there is the potential to use genetic traits to develop new personalized therapies or targeted therapies and to identify subgroups that, for example, have an increased risk of developing certain diseases based on their genetic features or to facilitate the early detection of the respective diseases and, among other things, to single out non‐responders and to focus more specifically on their specific needs. The consent forms that patients and donors have to fill out and accept with their signature and consent when providing samples to clinical institutes or biobanks, or similar repositories will also evolve into more flexible, dynamic, digitally accessible forms that enable patients/donors to track their own samples and their informative value or usefulness in research whenever and wherever they are. They can withdraw their consent at any time and thus exercise complete control over their genetic material processing. Thus, they will be better treated, jet better informed, and educated.O‐09 Biobanking during War: Experience of Audubon BioscienceM. Yanovytska, B. Shkurupii, H. Chytaieva, E. Serdyukova, A. Shekhovtsov, I. Voievoda, A. Yudchenko, N. Sobetska‐Koloda, T. Nguyen, A. Giardina, A. Popova, R. SemikovAudubon Bioscience, Kyiv, UkraineOn February 24, 2022, the large‐scale Russian army invasion severely interrupted the operations of our biobank in Ukraine. Our team globally and especially in Ukraine faced and is still facing many challenges. Before the events occurred (when risks of the war escalation increased), we prepared our contingency and business continuity plans. They were partially executed. We have since been able to resume operations in Ukraine.On the first day of the large‐scale war, the Operations team, together with Revenue and HR teams, organized the evacuation of the staff with all documentation and laptops, as well as laboratory equipment and ambient storage specimens to the Western region of Ukraine. We were able to eventually move the ambient specimens to the US. Once in our US operations facility, we reorganized and cataloged every specimen and reestablished our biobank there. For frozen specimens, since we can't relocate them due to the lack of proper transportation at that time, we decided to seal all freezers with specimens and installed surveillance cameras to keep them safe. Together with our temperature monitoring system, we were able to keep track of our freezers' temperature and ensured that the specimens were properly stored during the 2‐month period when only a few members of our team remained at the biobank.Ongoing Ukrainian projects were immediately transferred to other countries of operations such as Turkey, USA, Armenia, etc. In three months (May 2022) we achieved financial break‐even (monthly) confirming the fact that global organization was stabilized. After two months, when active warfare was stopped in the Kyiv region, new logistic chains were organized and we started to rebuild our workflow. By August 2022, the Ukrainian operations reached the level of pre‐war collection rates. However, we continue to distribute projects among all of our affiliates in other countries to minimize risks for our partners.In conclusion, the operations of Ukrainian biobanking have been faced with severe difficulties due to the Russian‐Ukrainian war. Although we were not able to execute our contingency and business continuity plans in full, right planning together with good execution and improvisation helped minimize the negative effect. Solutions that we put in place to ensure proper specimen storage were implemented and proved to be effective. Our ability to redistribute projects globally enabled us to continue supporting precision medicine researchers.O‐10 Survey of Adolescents Regarding Their Opinion of Research and Vaccination During the COVID‐19 PandemicQ. Aujla1, I. Kayda1, A. Ellis1, D. Goldfarb1, 2, J. Bettinger2, 3, L. Mâsse2, 3, J. Bush1, 2, S. Vercauteren1, 21Pathology and Lab Medicine, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 3BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, CanadaBackground: The COVID‐19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of research into disease biology, prevention, and treatment of emerging diseases and pathogens. Currently, there is limited understanding on adolescent perceptions towards biobanking, research participation, vaccinations, and how the pandemic has altered these perceptions. The BC Children's Hospital BioBank (BCCHB) surveyed Grade 8‐12 students in British Columbia (BC) to determine perceptions before and after the pandemic about topics such as research, pediatric biobanking, vaccinations, and public health policies.Methods: A voluntary, anonymous, 15‐question online survey was distributed through student emails, online school portals, and parent newsletters. Phase 1 of the survey was conducted from May to June 2021 and Phase 2 was conducted from Sept 2021 to June 2022. Questions were edited between Phases 1 and 2 to reflect vaccine availability for adolescents, and the emergence of new variants of COVID‐19.Results: We received a total of 1,022 completed survey responses, from participants aged 12‐19 years in 13 BC school districts and compared the findings to a previous completed school survey [1]. The majority of participants (94%) agreed that COVID‐19 is a serious disease and 95% stated that the pandemic has shown them how important medical research is. While many (95%) agreed on the importance of research before the COVID‐19 pandemic, this increased to 97% after pandemic onset. This desire to contribute to research was reflected by the 80% of participants willing to donate an extra blood sample for biobanking purposes during the COVID‐19 pandemic, compared to 64% from a 2016 school survey conducted among the same age group [1]. Participants (97%) also agreed that research participation would allow them to help others. Of the adolescents surveyed, the majority (85%) were comfortable with making the decision on their own to donate a sample specifically to research. Considering the current public health climate, 92% of participants stated that they will be vaccinated, for reasons such as knowing vaccines are safe, allowing them to engage in social activities, and protecting them from COVID‐19.Conclusion: Adolescents across BC were found to be more willing to participate in research after living through the COVID‐19 pandemic. They also were found to be more willing to donate leftover samples towards biobanking after knowing the importance of research in disease diagnosis and treatment.Reference: [1] Kong CC, Tarling TE, Strahlendorf C, Dittrick M, Vercauteren SM. Opinions of Adolescents and Parents About Pediatric Biobanking. J Adolesc Health, 2016; 58(4):474‐480. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.12.015. PMID: 27013273.O‐11 Tissue Microarrays: Turning Hidden Resources in Research GemsA. Yuksel1, M. Krivanek2, D. R. Catchpoole11Children's Cancer Research Unit, Kids Research, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, SCHN, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia, 2Anatomical Pathology, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, New South Wales, AustraliaIt is expected that biobanks provide critical tissue resources to researchers to conduct fundamental investigation into disease states and to ensure the best research use of all tissue biospecimens by linking them to key questions being asked in research. Recognizing the rarity of childhood cancers, small tumour specimen volumes, and the burgeoning need for tissue‐directed research, we describe here the impact of a research‐focussed biospecimen resource. The Tumour Bank at The Children's Hospital at Westmead (TB‐CHW) has initiated alongside the main source of all such tissue, our histopathology department. In 2012 we leveraged the hospital's formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded (FFPE) tissue block archive to commence a tissue microarray (TMA) construction program. Our purpose was to provide rationalised access to FFPE tissue whilst not impacting on the availability of blocks for future diagnostic or medico‐legal review. Construction of the TMAs that represented a single childhood cancer subtypes required a deep dive into the block archives with blocks selected covering sample collected over a couple of decade‐long periods or more. This resulted in a tissue resource where enough rare paediatric tumours representing all patients seen at a single centre are dr