COMBINE - What it is, what it could be

Abstract

The 'COmputational Modeling in BIology' NEtwork (COMBINE) is an initiative to coordinate the development of the various community standards and formats for computational models, initially in Systems Biology and related fields. By doing so, it is expected that the federated projects will develop a set of interoperable and non-overlapping standards covering all the aspects of modeling in biology.Building on the experience of mature projects, which already have stable specifications, software support, user-base and community governance, COMBINE will help foster or support fledging efforts aimed at filling gaps or new needs. As those efforts mature, they may become part of the core set of COMBINE standards.One of the initial activities of COMBINE is to coordinate the organization of scientific and technical events common to several standards.