The websites and blog posts of the OBF go back a long way, with the first posts having been published all the way back in June 2001. Keeping them accessible and findable under stable links is not an easy feat, especially given that since 2001 we’ve changed the way we create and serve those pages more than once, most recently in March of this year. And while we have successfully managed to do so, we thought it would be nice to have some backup plans in place. [Read More]

We recognize that the high price of travel and registration can make it hard for some people to attend BOSC/ISMB. Below are some ways to apply for financial assistance to present your work at BOSC 2025. OBF Event Fellowships The Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF)’s Event Fellowships are aimed at increasing diverse participation at events promoting open science in the bioinformatics and biological research communities. Awards are made three times a year; the next deadline is April 1, 2025 (note that this is earlier than the ISMB/ECCB submission deadline of April 17). [Read More]

We are pleased to announce that BOSC and the newly-renamed Bio-Ontologies and Knowledge Representation (BOKR) will join forces for a day at ISMB/ECCB 2025! The joint session will include talks chosen from abstracts submitted to BOSC or BOKR, plus a keynote speaker who is well known in both the ontology and open science communities (stay tuned for an announcement soon!). BOSC and BOKR are two of the longest-running COSIs (Communities of Special Interest) at ISMB: BOSC started in 2000 and BOKR (then called Bio-Ontologies) in 1998. [Read More]

CollaborationFest 2025 will be a two-day collaborative work event at which participants work together to contribute code, documentation, training materials, and challenging analysis problems and use cases. Bring your own project ideas or come ready to collaborate with others on their projects! BOSC has held CollaborationFests (aka CoFests) every year before or after ISMB since 2010. This year, we decided to hold the CollaborationFest as part of ISMB/ECCB and open it to all registered ISMB/ECCB participants. [Read More]

Over the past few weeks, we have been working behind the scenes to migrate our website, resulting in the page that you currently have in front of you! Our pages are now generated by the Go-based, open source static site generator Hugo, and are stored on GitHub. All old URLs should continue working as before, but if you run into any missing pages or other issues, please let us know by submitting an issue or contacting us via the channels linked in the page footer. [Read More]

The call for applications for round 1 of the OBF Event Fellowship for 2025 is now open. The deadline for this round is 1 April 2025. You can submit your application through this Google Form. We have provided a Word template to help you draft the application locally before filling out the form – make a copy of this template. The Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF)’s Event Fellowship program is aimed at increasing diverse participation at events promoting open science in the bioinformatics and biological research communities. [Read More]

We invited our community to nominate potential keynote speakers for BOSC, and we were delighted with the many excellent suggestions received. In the next stage of this process, we’re providing you with an opportunity to express any concerns regarding the suitability of any nominated individuals as BOSC Keynote Speakers. Our invited speaker selection process and criteria include examples of potential reasons for exclusion. If you have concerns about any of the individuals on our list, please share them (with as much detail as you feel comfortable providing) through this anonymous form by Friday, January 24, 2025. [Read More]

We invite you to join us for BOSC 2025, a vibrant gathering at the forefront of open-source bioinformatics and open science! Location: Liverpool, UK, and virtual Dates: July 21-22, 2025 Website: /events/bosc/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14344023/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bosc.bsky.social Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/obf-bosc/shared_invite/zt-n5ur1gsj-z2C~69_4lYTFPg5tbWA8Ew Key Dates January 16, 2025: Deadline for community nominations of keynote speakers April 17: Deadline for submitting talk/poster abstracts May 13: Talk/poster acceptance notifications May 15: Late poster submission deadline July 20-24: ISMB/ECCB 2025 July 21-22: BOSC 2025 (the first two full days of ISMB/ECCB 2025) July 23-24: ISMB CollaborationFest About BOSC [Read More]

The Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) Event Fellowship program aims to promote diverse participation at events promoting open-source bioinformatics software development and open science practices in the biological research community. Jacqueline Wahura Waweru, a PhD researcher at the University of Cape Town and International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the annual Royal Entomological Society Conference (Ento24). I was privileged to virtually attend the annual Royal Entomological Society conference Ento24 ( Ento24: In-person - Royal Entomological Society), which took place on 10th to 12th September at the University of Liverpool, UK. [Read More]

The Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) Event Fellowship program aims to promote diverse participation at events promoting open-source bioinformatics software development and open science practices in the biological research community. Erin (Rin) Krichilsky, a PhD researcher at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the 27th International Congress of Entomology (ICE2024 Kyoto). This year, I had the privilege to co-host the symposium “Bee diversity in East and Southeast Asia: Systematics and Status of the Fauna” at the International Congress of Entomology (ICE) in Kyoto, Japan. [Read More]