The Preparatory Phase for a pan-European Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI) will focus on technical, legal, governance, and financial issues to • prepare to construct BBMRI, building on existing biobanks, resources and technologies, specifically complemented with innovative components and properly embedded into European scientific, ethical, legal and societal frameworks, • provide the concept for a key resource to increase excellence and efficacy in biomedical sciences, drug development and public health, • expand and secure competitiveness of European research and industry in a global context, • develop a sustainable financial framework. Biomedical quality-assessed samples and data as well as biomolecular resources and molecular analysis tools are essential for academic and industry-driven research to treat and prevent human diseases. Although currently established national biobanks and biomolecular resources are a unique European strength, valuable collections typically suffer from fragmentation of the European biobanking-related research community. This hampers the collation of biological samples and data from different biobanks required to achieve sufficient statistical power. Moreover, it results in duplication of effort and jeopardises sustainability due to the lack of long-term funding. BBMRI will comprise: • biobanks of different formats (collections of blood, DNA, tissue, etc., together with medical, environmental, life-style and follow-up data), • biomolecular resources (antibody and affinity binder collections, ORF clone collections, siRNA libraries, proteins, cellular resources etc.), • enabling technologies and high-throughput analysis platforms and molecular tools to decipher gene, protein and metabolite functions and their interactions, • harmonized standards for sample collection, storage, preanalytics and analysis • harmonized databases and biocomputing infrastructure, • ethical, legal and societal