title: The Research Biobank of the Year Competition of the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking (ESBB): aims and achievements.
abstract: With the increasing number of research biobanks and the importance of their role in supporting medical and biological research, the development and sharing of biobanking best practices and benchmarking standards has become paramount. To promote outstanding biobank services for research, the Research Biobank of the Year Competition (RBYC) has been inaugurated by the European, Middle-Eastern, and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking (ESBB) in October 2013. The procedures for the call and evaluation procedure, including the newly developed scoring system, are presented here. The statistics and evaluation results of the first year's applications, as well as the experiences of the jury are reported here, and improvements for the RBYC in subsequent years are proposed. Beyond offering a unique benchmarking opportunity for biobanks, the RBYC is discussed as a novel tool to enhance biobank quality, transparency, usage, connectivity, innovation, and sustainability.
authors.affiliation: 1 Fraunhofer Institut für Biomedizinische Technik (IBMT) , Branch Potsdam-Golm, Germany .
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schröder
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Corfield
authors.forename: Jeanne-Hélène
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: di Donato
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Meir
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Parodi
authors.forename: Arndt A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tiran
authors.forename: Gunnel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tybring
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Hewitt
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D018070:Biological Specimen Banks / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D035843:Biomedical Research; D006801:Humans; D012952:Societies