The Need for Research Infrastructures: A Narrative Review of Large-Scale Research Infrastructures in Biobanking.

Abstract

Background: Distributed Research Infrastructures are gaining political traction in Europe to facilitate scientific research. This development has gained particular momentum in the area of biobanking where cross-national attempts have been made toward harmonizing the biobanking standards across the European Union through the establishment of the organization BBMRI (BioBanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure). BBMRI exists as separate national nodes across several European countries, although Sweden took on a pioneering role in its early stages. Thus, the Swedish node, BBMRI.se, was set up in 2009.

Purpose: To document publications addressing the current debate on large-scale distributed medical and/or biobank Research Infrastructures and identify the most pressing issues discussed by these articles through a narrative review.

Methods: The Web of Science (WOS) and PubMed databases were searched to find prior studies of large-scale medical Research Infrastructures, with no limits set with regard to study design and/or time period. All identified articles published up until March 2016 were included in the initial review.

Results: A total of 145 articles were retrieved from WOS and PubMed, though merely 17 ultimately made it past the final exclusion criteria. About two-thirds of the articles listed a first author affiliated to a European country. The articles most commonly discussed the need for developing and expanding the use of "infrastructures."

Practical implications: The future of scientific research will call for a deeper and more widespread multidisciplinary collaboration. This will emphasize the need of research seeking to optimize the preconditions of securing sustainable scientific collaboration. Future investigators will thus need to understand the components and mechanisms of Research Infrastructures in addition to acquiring knowledge of how to build, manage, brand, and promote them as well.