Editorial

With the introduction of Next Generation (NextGen) Sequencing technologies to the Life Sciences arena, the volume of sequence data being created is growing at an astonishing rate. Sharing data, hardware and human resources is essential for the effective use of these data. EMBnet, as one of the largest and still growing network of bioinformatics organizations, is aware of the user community needs and is actively working on this issue with the collaboration of other bioinformatics networks worldwide. A fruitful cooperation exists with the Iberoamerican (RIBIO) and the Asia Pacific (APBioNet ) bioinformatics networks as well as an affiliation to the US based International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB ). Close contacts have also been established with the African Society for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (ASBCB) and with the Southern African Network for Biosciences (SANbio). EMBnet’s role in teaching and as a provider of knowledge of bioinformatics tools, solutions and on how to set up and maintain local bioinformatics databases is also an increasing activity. All these activities are reflected in the contents of several articles in this issue.

The editorial board: Erik Bongcam-Rudloff, Domenica D’Elia, Pedro Fernandes, Andreas Gisel and Lubos Klucar.