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2014 — MRC-CLIMB starts
Founded with initial funding from the Medical Research Council (MR/L015080/1)to address the growing computational needs of microbial genomics researchers.
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2016 — Official CLIMB launch
Over 100 groups in the UK signed up fo use CLIMB within the first 5 months.
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COVID-19 — CLIMB-COVID
Built within the existing MRC-CLIMB infrastructure to support the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium — NHS organisations, UK public health agencies, over 20 academic partners, and regional sequencing centres including the Quadram Institute (QIB). Enabled analysis of over two millions SARS-CoV-2 genomes for outbreak management and vaccine research. See the CLIMB-COVID case study.
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CLIMB-BIG-DATA
Following its early success, CLIMB was awarded additional funding (MR/T030062/1)to expand capabilities and serve the broader microbial bioinformatics community beyond the original consortium.
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2025 — a new phase, towards self-sustainability
CLIMB entered a new phase of growth and sustainability, consolidating its position as a reference point for bioinformatic research and surveillance in the UK, and expanding its services to reach a global audience.
See how CLIMB has supported specific programmes and consortia in our case studies.