BBMRI.at with an ISO/TS 23494 keynote at BBMRI.sk Meeting and ICBBTM 2026

BBMRI.sk presents its activities

At the BBMRI.sk Meeting, the Slovak node presented its activities to Jens Habermann, Director General of BBMRI-ERIC, and other European guests. Discussions focused on the development and strategic direction of BBMRI.sk, its integration into the European research infrastructure and the role of regional biobanks.

For BBMRI.at, the meeting provided an opportunity to strengthen collaboration with its neighbouring Slovak node. Central European nodes face similar challenges, ranging from quality requirements and federated search to data provenance. Cross-border coordination is becoming increasingly important within BBMRI-ERIC.

Keynote on Data provenance from a biobank perspective

At ICBBTM 2026, jointly organised by BBMRI.sk, the Jessenius Faculty of Medicine and EATRIS Slovakia, Helmuth Haslacher delivered a keynote on the practical implementation of ISO/TS 23494 (Provenance information model for biological material and data) at BBMRI.at partner MedUni Wien Biobank.

The presentation demonstrated how this IT standard can be translated into practical biobank operations, drawing on the pilot project at the MedUni Wien. Three key areas were addressed:

– Standard operating procedures (SOPs): Which procedures generate provenance-related information, and where did documentation gaps reveal the need for revisions?

– Data sources: Laboratory information systems, biobank management systems, aliquoting and storage data, temperature monitoring, consent and ethics documentation, as well as clinical data collected using a structured template.

– Technical implementation: A purpose-built data model, ETL pipelines, mapping to the provenance model and MIABIS, the generation and validation of FHIR resources, and their integration into the federated BBMRI-ERIC Bridgehead infrastructure.

The key message was clear: provenance onboarding is primarily a process and data quality challenge rather than a programming task. This is particularly relevant for legacy collections with incomplete documentation, for which the presentation offered practical recommendations.

Visit to the biobank in Martin (SK)

As part of the BBMRI.sk Meeting, international guests visited the Biobank for Tumour and Rare Diseases at the Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin. The hosts guided Jens Habermann and representatives of the partner nodes through the facility.

The visit highlighted the rapid professionalisation of the regional biobanking landscape. For BBMRI.at, it also identified concrete opportunities for future collaboration, including joint efforts to develop quality requirements, exchange of experience on Bridgehead integration and the advancement of machine-readable provenance information as a shared standard within BBMRI-ERIC.