The call for applications for round 3 of the OBF Event Fellowship for 2025 is now open. The deadline for this round is 1 December 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. Awards are made three times a year; the next deadline is December 1, 2025.
We invite applications from candidates seeking financial support to attend relevant scientific events between January 2026 to December 2026. These events include conferences, workshops, code fests, hackathons, training courses, collaborative sprints, informal meet-ups or other skill-building and networking events. For more details, please read our OBF Event Fellowship policy document.
Overview of the Second 2025 round of the OBF Event Fellowship
The Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) Event Fellowship program is now in its 8th year. Since 2023, we have three application rounds per year with the following deadlines: 1 April, 1 August, and 1 December.
In the second round of 2025 (August 2025), we received numerous applications, and five applicants were selected for funding to support their participation in various events. Congratulations to the following recipients:
- David Kiragu Mwaura - Africa International Biotechnology and Biomedical Conference
- Elminah - Systems biology: from large datasets to biological insight
- Fatemeh Mirzadeh Sarcheshmeh - BioHackathon Europe 2025
- Hetvi Jethwani - BioHackathon Europe 2025
- Rafał Miłodrowski - BioHackathon Europe 2025
Notably, the OBF Events Fellowship sponsored three participants at the BioHackathon Europe 2025.
We require each awardee to write a blog post about their conference experience, to share what they learned with the wider community. Here are some examples from our recent awardees:
Tayyaba Alvi (left) attended the ISMB/ECCB2025 Conference, supported by OBF Event Fellowships. Read about their experience here.
Congratulations to all of our awardees! We are delighted to support their participation with OBF Event Fellowships, and we wish them all the best for their future work.
Please share this post and apply for the fellowship before 1 December 2025.