Call for expression of interest for participation in the MoPS2 project

Published:

4 August 2025

Deadline:

24 August 2025 - 23:59 (CEST)

Expired

About the call

In 2023, EFSA released a bioinformatic tool, the Microorganisms pipelines service (MoPS) portal, for harmonising the analysis of Whole Genome Sequence (WGS) data for risk assessment. Recently, EFSA initiated the “MoPS2 project” to deliver an enhanced version of the above-mentioned portal which will be accessible to applicants for the analysis of their WGS data. The enhanced version of MoPS will enable EFSA to obtain results from WGS-based analyses for risk assessment without requesting the submission of WGS data by applicants.

In this context, EFSA is launching a call for expressions of interest addressed to applicants to test the MoPS bioinformatic pipelines, i.e. bacteria, fungi, viruses. The testing is expected to focus on issues such as the characterisation of genetically modified microorganisms (GMMs), detection of genes of concern, WGS quality checks or identification of uncommon strains.

EFSA will invite the selected applicants to test the MoPS portal with their own data, verify that the enhancements are working properly and ensure the final version of the portal is fit for purpose. The selected applicants will be asked to share with EFSA WGS raw data of GMMs that are representative of the applications that are or will be submitted to EFSA. Those data will be used solely for testing and verifying the correct functioning of the pipelines. Selected applicants will also receive EFSA’s bioinformatic codes to test the functioning of the MoPS bioinformatic pipelines and will be asked to provide feedback and suggestions for their improvement.

This collaboration is a first step in the development of the enhanced version of MoPS. EFSA plans to further engage with applicants in the next steps of its testing.

Who we are looking for

Candidates must:

be an entity that submitted an application for the authorisation of a food or feed substance or product under European Union law;¹
be able to share with EFSA WGS data (either because the candidate is the data owner or it has permission to share the data with EFSA) from genetically modified bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi, viruses, and/or microalgae;
provide WGS data in the form of complete genomes for bacteria, and of excellent quality for other taxonomic units, in the form of raw sequencing reads (from any sequencing technology).

EFSA will select a maximum of five (5) applicants from the pool of eligible candidates received through this call.
Selection will be carried out on a first-come, first-served basis, determined by the time at which EFSA receives the completed submission form.

¹Applicant as defined in Article 3(1)(a) of the Decision of the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority Laying down practical arrangements concerning transparency and confidentiality, available here. Note that entities qualifying as a natural or legal person representing an applicant are not eligible to participate in this call for expression of interests.