Fairley & Associates, Felt and Hildebrand create science research service

The Instruct Hub (at www.structuralbiology.eu) is a European Union-funded project which aims to operate as a hub for structural biology research – providing scientists across Europe with access to technologies and enabling collaborations.

Fairley & Associates began work on the project in October, while Felt and Hildebrand were appointed following a pitch process.

Instruct went into beta phase in April 2011 and is fully launching today.

Felt worked to create the identity for the initiative. Scott Manning, partner at Felt, says, ‘We’ve made a feature of Instruct’s inclusiveness, of being “in” “Instruct”.’

He adds, ‘The logo represents a jigsaw puzzle of bringing together people, their expertise and support with technology. We’ve drawn on this graphic device to create a distinctive and recognisable pattern that is used throughout their communication to quickly build recognition.’

Hildebrand, meanwhile, worked to create the online system itself. Joshua Cooper, chief executive at Hildebrand, says, ‘[We have delivered] what we believe is a unique online environment; using social media and other technologies to help scientists achieve their research goals.’

Rachel Fairley, managing director of Fairley & Associates, says, ‘As programme leaders our role was to help Instruct define their strategy and ensure it became reality within six months.’

She adds, ‘We make no apologies for the ambition of our work. We had a blank sheet of paper and quickly identified that there was a huge opportunity to create a unique environment for biologists.’

Professor Dave Stuart, Instruct director, says, ‘By bringing together the different disciplines, technologies and experts in European biology, Instruct will be helping to make the vision of truly integrated biology a reality for the first time.’