Biobank Norway
Biobank Norway (bbmri.no) is a large-scale national research infrastructure for clinical and population based biobanks. Biobank Norway was established in 2010, and followed the preceding infrastructure for population biobanks, Biohealth Norway and the Regional Research Biobank of Central Norway, which were both initially funded under the FUGE-program 2002.
The project is coordinated by NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Biobank Norway is funded through the Research Council of Norway (RCN) program for Research Infrastructures (INFRASTRUKTUR) since 2011:
- Biobank Norway 1, 2011 - 2016: 80 MNOK
- Biobank Norway 2, 2016 - 2020: 85 MNOK
- Biobank Norway 3, 2020 - 2024: 41,5 MNOK
- Biobank Norway 4, 2022 - 2027: 100 MNOK
Vision and scientific goals:
- Biobank Norway shall sustain and strengthen its role as a highly advanced and comprehensive national research infrastructure for health sciences
- Biobank Norway shall enhance the use of biobanks as a basis for excellent research and innovation, and reinforce our ability to participate in international research
- Biobank Norway shall provide internationally competitive biobanking services for basic, clinical, and epidemiological medical research
Biobank Norway is member of the European biobank research infrastructure, BBMRI.ERIC (Biobanks and BioMolecular Research Infrastructure) - a research infrastructure for biobanking, bringing together all the main players from the biobanking field - researchers, biobankers, industry, and patients - to boost biomedical research. BBMRI-ERIC offers quality management services, support with ethical, legal and societal issues, and a number of online tools and software solutions for biobankers and researchers.