Review of the ELIXIR 2026 All Hands Meeting in Lyon

From 8 to 10 June, a delegation from ELIXIR France (IFB/ELIXIR-FR) was in Lyon to take part in the ELIXIR 2026 All Hands Meeting (AHM), the general assembly of the European ELIXIR infrastructure. This 12th edition, held in France for the first time, brought together representatives from the various ELIXIR nodes, as well as institutional and scientific partners. The French node was well represented, with a particularly committed delegation alongside our “Coordinators’ Triangle” and our co-Heads of Node. Three days of discussions, workshops, presentations and meetings to take stock of current projects and plan for future ones.
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Following the opening of the 2026 edition by Tim Hubbard, Director of ELIXIR, Anne-Françoise Adam-Blondon, Head of the ELIXIR-France Node and Deputy Director of the IFB (IFB/ELIXIR-FR), presented the French node – a symbolic moment for our organisation as the host country. Andrew Smith, Head of External Relations at ELIXIR, then outlined ELIXIR’s position within the European and global landscape.

From training to research data management, and from the advancement of scientific communities to issues of equity and diversity within ELIXIR, the French delegation took part in, led and gave presentations at mini-symposia, workshops and the unmissable poster session.

Below are the contributions from the French node delegation, organised by theme:

• On matters relating to strategy and the ELIXIR communities:

Anne-Françoise Adam-Blondon co-presented a poster on the future of the ELIXIR communities, building on the discussions initiated by the ‘ELIXIR Communities Future Focus Group’.

Cyril Pommier took part in the panel discussion “Bridging gaps: from ELIXIR Science Tier to User Value” on behalf of the coordination team for the Biodiversity, Food Security & Pathogens (BFSP) priority area. This provided an opportunity to present and defend BFSP’s strategic decisions over the past year. He also co-chaired the Biodiversity, Food Security & Pathogens Programme mini-symposium, focusing in particular on the 2027–2028 Work Programme.

• On the training front:

Olivier Sand took part in two mini-symposia: one focusing on the ELEAD and Train-the-Trainer programmes, and the other dedicated to presenting the Training Platform within ELIXIR. These sessions provided an opportunity to highlight the various resources produced by the Training Platform. In particular, the benefits and impact of the Train-the-Trainer programme for the French node, as well as the Training Metrics Database (a multi-node service for monitoring and reporting training metrics within ELIXIR) were presented.

Olivier Sand also presented a poster on the Training Metrics Database.

• As for bioinformatics tools and resources:

Several members of the French node took part in the Tools Platform’s mini-symposium, entitled ‘From software to science: The ELIXIR Tools Platform in action’. A presentation by Claire Rioualen highlighted the communities involved in the collaboration around ELIXIR’s ‘Research Software Ecosystem’, and a presentation on the MiCoReCa project for the aggregation and curation of microbial resources was given by Bérénice Batut. To conclude, a panel discussion was moderated by Hervé Ménager. This mini-symposium was very well received and generated a great deal of positive feedback.

Hervé Ménager also presented a poster on « ShareFAIR-KG, une base de connaissances centralisée dédiée aux workflows scientifiques ».

Claire Rioualen presented a poster entitled « From a coffee break to EDAM MCP: a BioHackathon success story », highlighting a collaborative dynamic that emerged from the 2023 ELIXIR BioHackathon and which continues to this day.

Alban Gaignard co-led, alongside Claire Rioualen and other contributors, a workshop on community-led FAIR assessment for training materials, tools and work processes.

• With regard to research data management:

Saliha Zenboudji-Beddek presented a poster, co-authored with her colleagues at IFB/ELIXIR-FR, on the ‘IFB Facility DMP’, a collaborative multi-omics data management plan template for use within French national biology and health infrastructures.

Anne-Françoise Adam-Blondon presented success stories relating to the publication of data on plants and domestic animals at the mini-symposium organised by the Data Platform, whilst Cyril Pommier presented a poster, co-authored with Michael Alaux, on ‘Flavours of FAIR Digital Objects’, proposing the use of digital objects – for example, in RO-CRATE format – as tools for the development of European data spaces.

• On the topics of biodiversity, the microbiome and metagenomics:

Bérénice Batut presented a poster on the ‘Microbiology Galaxy Lab’ and was a speaker at the workshop ‘Mapping cross-project outreach and user journeys for the BFSP community’, where she presented the results of the FAIRyMAGs project. This workshop was co-facilitated by Cyril Pommier, who also led a discussion group on mapping user journeys for the Plant section of Biodiversity, Food Security and Pathogens (BFSP).

Solenne Correard presented a poster on the Biodiversity Genomics Galaxy Lab, a collaborative hub bringing together tools, workflows and training materials for biodiversity genomics.

Clara Emery, for her part, led a workshop on ‘Developing RDMkit Pages for Metabarcoding’, focusing on the effective management of diversity analysis data beyond the field of marine biology.

• On the subject of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI):

Laura Chabot co-presented a poster on EDI within ELIXIR (“Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – Share Your Perspective”) and co-led a workshop entitled “From past experience to future action”, aimed at laying the foundations for a group focusing on this same theme. This session brought together participants from various ELIXIR nodes to discuss EDI-related issues. It highlighted shared priorities and a keen interest in a coordinated approach to advancing EDI within ELIXIR. Furthermore, the poster provided an additional forum for dialogue, enabling the sharing of experiences and recommendations for future EDI initiatives.

All of the IFB/ELIXIR-FR presentations can be found in the IFB-core HAL collection.

Hosting the All Hands Meeting in France was a significant moment for all the teams at the French node. As well as the scientific sessions and informal discussions, this Lyon event helped to strengthen ties with the other nodes and identify new avenues for collaboration. See you in 2027 in Budapest (7–10 June) for the next All Hands Meeting!

Looking ahead, you’ll be able to meet the ELIXIR-FR teams at the BioHackathon, which will take place in Barcelona from 9 to 13 November 2026!