Rationale and starting point. Following the rapid progress in genomics research of humans and their ancestors, biomedical and health research has expanded from the study of rare monogenic diseases to common, multifactorial diseases (Xxxxxxx et al., 2003). Innovative, high-throughput technologies are widely expected to enable a better dissection of these complex, causally heterogeneous diseases into more specific diagnostic entities, which is a requirement for the advancement of personalised medicine (Xxxxxxx et al., 2004; Xxxxx et al., 2005; Xxxxxx et al., 2005; Xxxxxxxx, 2006;). A sharper, biology-based definition of disease categories will enhance the development of more effective treatment, reduce undesired side effects of new treatments, improve success in clinical trial design, and will lead to new concepts of disease prevention. Elucidation of complex disease aetiology is challenging because diseases are caused by a large number of small, often additive effects, representing the sum of the consequences of genetic predisposition, lifestyle and the environment. Revealing these complex interactions will depend critically on the study of large sets of well-documented, up-to-date epidemiological, clinical, biological and molecular information and corresponding material from large numbers of patients and healthy persons, collected and made available by xxxxxxxx (Kaiser, 2002; Xxxxxxx, 2005; Xxxxx and Xxxxxxxxx-Xxxx, 2004; Xxxxxxx et al., 2006). The biological material collected in biobanks for biomedical research typically comprises DNA, tissues, cells, blood or other body fluids. Although currently established biobanks and biomolecular resources are a specific European strength, valuable and irreplaceable national collections typically suffer from fragmentation of the European biobanking-related research community, variable access rules and the lack of commonly applied standards (Xxxxxxxx et al., 2003; Xxxxx and Xxxxxxxxx-Xxxx, 2004). This hampers the collation of biological samples and data from different biobanks which is prerequisite to achieve sufficient statistical power. Moreover, it results in duplication of effort and jeopardises sustainability because of the lack of long-term comprehensive funding approaches. This results in a risk of these valuable resources being analyzed and emerging innovations commercially utilized outside Europe. There is also a need to strengthen the capacity to develop networks of biobanks meeting high standards of integration compatible with the desi...
