We're excited to announce a new partnership with Wellcome, the global charitable foundation supporting science to solve urgent challenges. Our work will help Wellcome to gain deeper insight into the data resource ecosystem, providing a snapshot of the resources their researchers rely on.
Data resources that researchers rely on are critical to advancing science and discovery. That research often starts with data that research funders, such as Wellcome, did not create and does not maintain, including biodata repositories, population cohort databases, and environmental and climate data resources, built and sustained by organizations that often operate out of public view. At a moment when the research community is paying closer attention than ever to the resilience of the data infrastructure it depends on, we are supporting Wellcome to gain a clearer, deeper picture of that landscape. In turn, this will enable collective conversations within the research community about how we sustain these resources.
IOI is leading that effort, drawing on our track record of working alongside infrastructure providers, not just evaluating them from the outside. We'll be engaging directly with the teams running these resources to understand their governance, funding models, technical dependencies, open policies, sustainability outlooks and the broader ecosystem they operate within, the kind of insight that only comes from sustained, trust based engagement.
The foundation for this work is Infra Finder, IOI's open discovery platform for research infrastructure. We'll build verified, publicly accessible profiles for each resource in scope, using our established research and diligence process.This is also a significant expansion for Infra Finder, which has grown to include nearly 150 profiles of open infrastructure since its 2024 launch. Infra Finder is more than a directory. It's the foundation of our annual State of Open Infrastructure report, which tracks how the field is evolving year over year. Adding this cohort brings these data resources into that same yearly monitoring and analysis, giving Wellcome and the broader community longitudinal visibility into how they change and how they're funded over time.
We're looking forward to the work ahead. Stay tuned for more in the coming months!
