We propose to form a Network of Excellence in the area of bioinformatics to provide a Europe-wide integration of computational approaches in systems biology. This network will be focused on the development and critical assessment of computational approaches in this area, but uniquely will bring together a range of backgrounds and laboratory contexts that will span investigative computer science through to traditional wet-bench molecular biology. Despite the progress in bioinformatics methods and databases, even the best experimental labs use only a small number of computational tools in their work and rarely exploit the potential of multiple datasets. This network will enable a transformation of the way computational analysis is used in the laboratory and the infrastructure will be entirely open, analogous to the genome information. To achieve its goals, the network will internally have close collaboration between experimental and computational research, with a specific consumables budget for experimentally testing predictions. The computational work includes the development of a distributed database infrastructure appropriate for small laboratories and development of analysis methods including Bayesian networks, metabolite flux modeling and correlations of protein modifications to pathways. The experimental techniques used to test this system include mass spectroscopy, synthetic peptide biochemistry and RNAi knockdown. Where appropriate we have chosen experimental areas connected to intracellular signaling associated with the cell cycle. An additional benefit will be greater understanding in this area. Overall the ENFIN network will deliver four main products: a platform for database provision of diverse biological data (the ENFIN core), a suite of analysis tools integrated with this platform (the ENFIN analysis layer), extensive documentation written from the wet laboratory perspective and “best practice” guidelines for the use of computers in systems biology.