The COST Action CHARME A European Initiative for the Harmonisation of Standards for Life Sciences Research (CA15110)

Standardisation and quality management are important drivers in the life sciences and biotechnology, as only data generated with minimum quality assurance can be easily implemented into industrial applications. Standards assure and ensure that data become easily accessible, shareable and comparable along the value chain. Reproducibility, standards and standard operating procedures (SOPs) in data generation and analysis are challenging topics of modern research and bioinformatics. Only by the use of common standards life science research will improve its efficiency and competitiveness. CHARME aims to identify needs and gaps in standards, teaming up with other initiatives and organisations, and proposing new strategies for the successful assimilation of standards into the daily work-flow of researchers. Currently, 30 EU countries are involved in this initiative, which makes it one of the most widely recognised Actions among all COST initiatives.