The Ensembl project, a system for genome annotation, analysis, storage, and dissemination, has released its 2016 update. This year, Ensembl introduced three newly annotated species and made numerous updates to existing species, focusing on the latest genome assemblies of human, mouse, zebrafish, and rat. The project also provided two data updates for the previous human assembly, GRCh37, through a dedicated website. Improvements were made to tools such as the Variant Effect Predictor (VEP), which now integrates additional third-party data and supports larger-scale analysis. The website can now display long-range interactions and has launched a mobile-optimized site. All data is freely available without restriction, and all code is available under an Apache 2.0 license. The project continues to engage with the scientific community through outreach programs and collaborations with projects like ENCODE, GRC, GA4GH, and GENCODE.The Ensembl project, a system for genome annotation, analysis, storage, and dissemination, has released its 2016 update. This year, Ensembl introduced three newly annotated species and made numerous updates to existing species, focusing on the latest genome assemblies of human, mouse, zebrafish, and rat. The project also provided two data updates for the previous human assembly, GRCh37, through a dedicated website. Improvements were made to tools such as the Variant Effect Predictor (VEP), which now integrates additional third-party data and supports larger-scale analysis. The website can now display long-range interactions and has launched a mobile-optimized site. All data is freely available without restriction, and all code is available under an Apache 2.0 license. The project continues to engage with the scientific community through outreach programs and collaborations with projects like ENCODE, GRC, GA4GH, and GENCODE.