Term	Definition
Application Programming Interface (API)	APIs allow applications to communicate with one another. An API is not a database. It is an access point that an application can utilise in order to access a database.
Biobanks	A biobank is a type of biorepository that stores biological samples (usually human) for use in research.
BioContainers	A system for building highly portable packages of bioinformatics software, containerization and virtualization technologies for isolating reusable execution environments for these packages, and an integrated workflow system that automatically orchestrates the composition of these packages for entire pipelines: https://biocontainers.pro/#/
BioMedical Science Research Infrastructures (BMS RI)	ESFRI RIs that provide support to life scientists (listed under Food and Health): [http://roadmap2018.esfri.eu/media/1044/part1-project-landmarks-list.pdf] - including ELIXIR, BBMRI-ERIC.
ELIXIR Nodes	An ELIXIR Node is a collection of research institutes within a member country that run the resources and services that are part of ELIXIR. There are currently 23 ELIXIR Nodes.
ELIXIR Communities	ELIXIR Communities bring together experts across Europe to develop standards, services and training within specific life science domains.
ESFRI	European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures
Federated	Federated is used in this context to describe an enterprise architecture that allows interoperability and information sharing between semi-autonomous de-centrally organized lines of business information technology systems and applications.
GDPR	The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union and the European Economic Area. It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas
Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH)	The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (https://www.ga4gh.org) is a policy-framing and technical standards-setting organization, seeking to enable responsible genomic data sharing within a human rights framework. 5-year strategic plan: https://www.ga4gh.org/wp-content/uploads/GA4GH-Connect-A-5-year-Strategic-Plan.pdf
HPC	High Performance Computing most generally refers to the practice of aggregating computing power in a way that delivers much higher performance than one could get out of a typical desktop computer or workstation in order to solve large problems in for example science, engineering, or business.
Metadata	Metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data, or dataset(s).