ELIXIR Board meeting in Berlin welcomes Croatia as new observer nation

The 24th ELIXIR Board meeting took place in Berlin, Germany, on 4–5 November 2025, bringing together national representatives, observers, and heads of nodes to shape the strategic trajectory of Europe’s life science data infrastructure.

As ELIXIR’s principal governing body, the Board steers the organisation’s scientific programme, budget, and partnerships, overseeing policy on data governance, ethics, and international collaboration. Each Member State and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) appoints a single delegate, with decisions reached by consensus or qualified majority.

This year’s meeting marked a key development: Croatia was officially welcomed as an ELIXIR Observer on 4 November, signalling the country’s intent to deepen engagement and move toward full Membership.

Observer status allows nations to participate in Board discussions and ELIXIR initiatives without immediate financial or operational commitments. It provides a structured on-ramp to Membership and integration into the ELIXIR ecosystem, as recently demonstrated by Austria and Romania.

Croatia’s future ELIXIR Node will be led by the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Medicine under Professor Fran Borovečki. It will focus on human genomics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, with contributions from the Universities of Split, Rijeka and Osijek, and the Ruđer Bošković Institute.