Bielefeld Institute for Bioinformatics Infrastructure

The Bielefeld Institute for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (BIBI) was founded in summer 2019 and slightly restructured in spring 2021. It pools the bioinformatics service and training activities at the Faculty of Technology, Faculty of Biology and Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) at Bielefeld University. The goal is to create a powerful institute offering research infrastructure for all areas in the digital life sciences - together with ZB MED, Information Center for Life Sciences in Köln and Bonn, and in cooperation with the German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI), ELIXIR Germany and the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG-5) at Forschungszentrum Jülich. At the same time original research is carried out – mostly in cooperation with other national and international partners and often with the goal to evaluate and improve existing bioinformatics services.

More background about the history and mission of the institute can be found below, and under

• The process of establishing BIBI and
• Alliance with ZB MED.

The institute comprises three scientific units, of which two are currently in operation. Yet to be set into function is the unit for Service Science in the Life Sciences, when the professorship with the same denomination will be filled. The other two scientific units, Cloud Computing headed by Prof. Dr. Alexander Sczyrba and Microbial Analyses and Services headed by Prof. Dr. Alexander Schönhuth, are presented on dedicated websites.

The fourth unit of BIBI is the graduate school Digital Infrastructure for the Life Sciences (DILS), coordinated by Dr. Roland Wittler. It contributes both to the educational aspect, and also to the research profile of BIBI. By training data scientists with a focus on the development of new bioinformatics methods, the graduate school supports the institute in establishing the young research profile "Service Science in the Life Sciences" at an international level. PhD projects currently ongoing in the DILS graduate school are presented on the DILS website.