Open PHACTS Foundation

History of the Open PHACTS Project…

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Open PHACTS began as an Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) project in 2011, delivered by a consortium of experts from academia and industry.

For an overview of what the Open PHACTS project has achieved, we recommend Paul Groth’s blog post, Open PHACTS –  a story through publications, which gives a summary of the major outcomes of the project and the creation of the Open PHACTS Discovery Platform.

Below you can find public documentation about the project and its outcomes.


Project Background


Project Milestones

Major milestones that have been achieved over the course of the Open PHACTS project.

  • Milestone 1: Prioritised list of research questions (March 2011)
  • Milestone 2: Engineering structure, questions and requirements, governance in place. Full consortium meeting with lash-up discussion held (August 2011)
  • Milestone 3: First working release demonstrate use, Associated Partners enlisted and integrated (Feburary 2012)
  • Milestone 4: Core services released to broader community (March 2013)
  • Milestone 5: Demonstrated application in experimental teams, active involvement of Associated Partners, growing community of users, sustainability/hosting resolved. (November 2013)
  • Milestone 6: Long term funding implemented with permanent beta developer team Open PHACTS Discovery Platform hosted and running secure access implemented (August 2014)
  • Milestone 8: Version 4 of the Open PHACTS Discovery Platform released (May 2015)

Public Deliverables

Concrete outcomes that the Open PHACTS project has delivered.

Work package 1: Identity resolution and vocabulary services

  • Deliverable 1.5.1: Transporter taxonomy established (August 2014)
  • Deliverable 1.6: Deliver Open PHACTS domain vocabularies for version 1 and Phase 2 pilots (April 2012)
  • Deliverable 1.7: Deliver Open PHACTS commons vocabularies for version 1 and Phase 2 pilots (April 2012)

Work package 3: Architecture and technical governance of Open PHACTS

  • Deliverable 3.2.5: Open PHACTS Discovery Platform version 3.0 developed and signed off by Technical Task Force and Executive Committee on criteria formulated in WP1-6.pdf (August 2014)

Work package 4: Linked data, content mapping, population

  • Deliverable 4.5.3: Deliver second version of the Linked Data Cache with all services released externally (July 2013)
  • Deliverable 4.5.5: Final version of Linked Data Cache and services as sustainable production type (August 2014)

Work package 5: Core specific services for drug discovery questions

  • Deliverable 5.1.4: First release of Target Dossier to community (November 2013)
  • Deliverable 5.2.4: Second prototype of ChemBioNavigator including substructure and pattern search, API to Open PHACTS data layer and access to most Open PHACTS data sources, released to public (February 2013)
  • Deliverable 5.2.5: ChemBioNavigator major release with refined, full functionality and improved usability, production level testing and documentation (September 2014)
  • Deliverable 5.3.4: First release of Polypharmacology browser, Pharmatrek, to community (September 2013)
  • Deliverable 5.3.5: First release of Polypharmacology browser, GARField (September 2013)

Work package 6: Exploitation pilots

  • Deliverable 6.5.2: First ENSO Researchathon completed and output communicated to the project (February 2015)
  • Deliverable 6.6: Provide a user guide for version 1 (August 2012)
  • Deliverable 6.11: Release of version 1.1 of the service application to the community (March 2013)
  • Deliverable 6.14: Organisation of prototype Training Event (November 2013)
  • Deliverable 6.16: Release of version 2 of the service application to the community (Dec 2013)
  • Deliverable 6.19: Organisation of prototype user group meeting (June 2014)
  • Deliverable 6.21: Release of version 3 of the service application to the community (Sep 2014)
  • Deliverable 6.22: Report on results of case studies and scientific publications achieved with the Open PHACTS Discovery Platform (February 2015)

Work package 8: Community engagement and partnering

  • Deliverable 8.3.1: Run Open PHACTS Workshop 1 – Solving Bottlenecks in data sharing in the Life sciences (September 2011)
  • Deliverable 8.3.2: Run Open PHACTS Workshop 2 – Working with Open PHACTS (May 2012)
  • Deliverable 8.3.3: Run Open PHACTS Workshop 3 – Introducing Open PHACTS (September 2012)
  • Deliverable 8.3.4: Run Open PHACTS Workshop 4 – Using the Power of Open PHACTS (April 2013)
  • Deliverable 8.3.5: Run Open PHACTS Workshop 5 – Shaping the Future of Open PHACTS (October 2013)
  • Deliverable 8.3.6: Run Open PHACTS Workshop 6 – Open PHACTS for Academia (June 2014)
  • Deliverable 8.8.1: Report on analysis of IMI projects with respect to potential for joint scientific use cases (March 2015)

Work package 9: Project management and dissemination