New models for research and innovation are emerging in the life sciences, with emphasis placed on collaboration and partnership between a variety of stakeholders, including academia, government, industry and nongovernmental organizations.'At the same time, a deluge of biological data is being generated around the world, primarily due to the advent of highthroughput technologies such as next-generation sequencing, RNAseq, and array based gene expression analysis.'More recently population genetics and systematic phenotype analysis of model organisms' such as the mouse and zebrafish have begun to generate large volumes of complex and multi-layered data, while a similar explosion is occurring in the availability of bioresources fundamental to biomedical research, such as mutant mouse strains. The latter is due in part to a coordinated high-throughput community project, the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC),'which is generating and