The two first periods of the Biobank Norway research infrastructure (BN1 2011-15 and BN2 2016-18) has resulted in a significant boost for a number of biobanks at all the partner institutions as well as a great stimulus for excellent research activities.

On this basis, our main objectives are still to; i) to sustain and strengthen our role as a highly advanced and comprehensive national research infrastructure for health sciences ii) to enhance the use of biobanks as a basis for excellent research and innovation, and reinforce our ability to participate in international research and iii) to provide internationally competitive biobanking services for basic, clinical, and epidemiological medical research.

Building on these Norwegian assets, we want to take Biobank Norway to the next level by focusing on areas such as stronger national coordination, a major effort on precision medicine, new initiatives in nation-wide hospital-based biobanking, donor communication platforms, investment in automatized storage facilities, digitization of biobanks and large-scale analyses both on a population level and within a clinical setting.

The response from the NFR on the BN3 application is expected during the summer of 2019.