Fostering and sustaining collaborative innovation: Insights from ELIXIR Europe's life science Communities

Communities of experts collaborating on scientific or technical projects are drivers of innovation across the life sciences. The ELIXIR research infrastructure organises scientific- and technological-themed communities as one of its key mechanisms to ensure that services are user-focused, while at the same time facilitating collaboration and creating scientific impact through the life science data generated across Europe. ELIXIR has rapidly expanded its communities portfolio in response to unmet needs and has developed a comprehensive process framework to facilitate the work of these communities. The ELIXIR Communities framework is made up of a suite of tools and processes that ensure effective community evolution and management, covering how communities are established, led, supported, and can collaborate across ELIXIR and beyond. Being aware of similar approaches in other contexts and in the interests of furthering community development in other research infrastructures and similar organisations, we share insights into the ELIXIR Communities framework and outline the skill set of a community manager and what this looks like in the ELIXIR context. Finally, to show the benefits of the communities, we share concrete examples of how the ELIXIR Communities have had an impact on the scientific landscape. By showcasing these outcomes we hope to demonstrate not only to other research infrastructures, but also to funders, that supporting scientific communities provides a valuable return on investment. We hope that these examples will encourage life scientists who may be interested in joining the ELIXIR Communities, and research infrastructure professionals whose roles require structured engagement with domain experts and users.