In brief
Federico Bianchini is a senior engineer at the Centre for Bioinformatics at the University of Oslo, where he serves as a data steward for ELIXIR Norway. In this role, he plays a key part in national and international efforts to promote data sharing and the adoption of best practices for making datasets FAIR—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
With a strong foundation in computational Physics, Federico has previously worked on projects aimed at understanding the mechanisms of technology-relevant materials, such as graphene, alloys, and batteries, at the atomic level. His development of computational models and collaborations with experimental partners shaped his expertise in complex data-related processes.
Federico earned his BSc and MSc in Physics, specialising in condensed matter, from the University of Trieste in Italy, and later received his PhD in Physics from King’s College London in the UK. In 2016, he moved to Norway and joined the Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology as a postdoctoral fellow. He transitioned to the Centre for Bioinformatics in 2020, where he contributes to the advancement of data stewardship in the life sciences.
Active projects
ELIXIR3 - Strengthening the Norwegian Node of ELIXIR (2022–)
The NFR-funded ELIXIR3 project was initiated in 2022 to upgrade and strengthen the Norwegian Node of ELIXIR and its efforts to enable safekeeping, with optimal use and re-use, of life science data for present and future research and innovation, within and across disciplines. In the context of this project, I am involved in several activities related to:
- FAIR data: implementation and competence building
- ELIXIR Helpdesk: support for data management and data management plans
- Human health and precision medicine: data management and support
I am an admin of the Norwegian instance of the Data Stewardship Wizard (DSW) and provide training and support for this service. I also contribute to other local and national initiatives such as FAIRtracks, the ecosystem for the FAIRification of genomic tracks data and EDAM, the ontology of bioscientific data analysis and data management.
ELIXIR's Research Data Management Community (2023–)
ELIXIR's Research Data Management Community was established in late 2023 to promote FAIR data and Open Science principles, thus continuing the work initiated as part of ELIXIR-CONVERGE (see below) and expanding the existing network of data management experts. My contributions here are mostly in kind, but they are particularly well aligned with my ongoing and past (from late 2020 onwards) activities. As part of this, I am part of the editorial board of ELIXIR's Research Data Management Toolkit (RDMkit) and also contribute to the registration and FAIRification of training materials.
ELIXIR Interoperability Platform (2024–)
This initiative is funded through ELIXIR Europe as part of their Commissioned Service Plan for the 2024-28 period (refer to ELIXIR's scientific Program for more information). As part of this activity, I work on the curation of metadata for training material with a focus on ELIXIR's Training eSupport System (TeSS), of which I am a curator, and the associated registries and ontologies (in particular, EDAM).
Past projects
BioMedData - an infrastructure for data sharing and management (2020–24)
The NFR-funded BioMedData infrastructure was established in 2020 to provide better and more integrated data management support for life science research projects in Norway. I had the role of "data management coordinator" in this activity and contributed to several activities including:
- Development of models and administration of the national instance of the Data Stewardship Wizard (DSW).
- Development of the Life Science RDM Lookup, collecting best practices aimed at Norwegian scientists.
- Contributed to a tool for monitoring the deposition of data.
- Extensive training activities on research data management
ELIXIR-CONVERGE (2020–23)
The ELIXIR-CONVERGE project was funded by the European Commission to help standardise life science data management across Europe. My contributions to this project are related to
- Training and capacity building in data stewardship; FAIRifiaction of the associated material.
- Development of ELIXIR's Research Data Management Toolkit (RDMkit).
All these activities continue as part of my current work (ELIXIR3, RDM community, and ELIXIR interoperability platform, read above for more details).
Scientific Background
I have a solid background in condensed matter physics, developed during my bachelor's and master's at the University of Trieste, and further expanded during my PhD at King's College London with concepts closely related to materials science.
My former projects include the investigation of the atomistic mechanism of graphene growth on metallic surfaces (work which was initiated during my MSc) and the characterisation of the mechanical properties of Ni-based alloys (PhD project). Within the first project, density functional theory (DFT) calculations, augmented with semi-empirical van der Waals corrections, are employed to obtain accurate adsorption configuration. This work includes the calculation of many transition barriers using the nudged elastic band (NEB) method to characterise the growth mechanism of graphene and to understand the role of hydrogen on experimentally relevant adsorption geometries. In the latter project, DFT is coupled to a classical interatomic potential to perform QM/MM simulations of dislocation glide in Ni-based alloys.
During my postdoc at the University of Oslo, I carried out investigations of potential novel battery materials for lithium/sodium-based applications. This study involved the calculation of the electronic and structural properties of a variety of materials, as well as the characterisation of ionic diffusivity.