At BOSC 2026, we want to talk about the elephant in the open-source room: Is generative AI an advantage or a hindrance to open source?
We invite abstracts on this topic. Some might be selected to give talks at BOSC (which will be part of ISMB 2026). We may also invite some of the chosen speakers to participate in a panel. The submission deadline is April 9.
[Read More]BOSC is part of the big ISMB 2026 conference, so you need to register for ISMB to participate in BOSC.
We recognize that the high price of travel and registration can be a barrier. Below are some ways to apply for financial assistance to attend ISMB / BOSC.
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…such as BOSC.
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We thank our community for the excellent keynote speaker suggestions for BOSC 2026. The next phase of our selection process invites you to share any concerns about the suitability of the nominated individuals. Our invited speaker selection process and criteria outline the factors we consider when selecting speakers for BOSC 2026, including characteristics that will exclude a speaker.
Please use this anonymous form to submit any concerns, including as much detail as you are comfortable providing, by Friday, January 9th, 2026.
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BOSC 2026 is planned for July 14-15, 2026, as part of ISMB 2026 in Washington, DC.
We invite our community to nominate potential keynote speakers who would be of interest to our community. You may submit as many nominations as you wish. The form may be filled out multiple times. Please submit nominations by December 15, 2025.
Keynote talks are always a highlight at BOSC. We traditionally open and close the conference with invited speakers—prominent contributors or emerging leaders whose work resonates with the bioinformatics open-source community.
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Whether you attended BOSC 2025 or missed it, you can read about it (with lots of photos!) in our report published in F1000Research.
We are also pleased to announce that videos of the BOSC 2025 talks are now available on our schedule page, as well as on our YouTube channel. Enjoy!
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.
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.
[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. BOKR focuses on the FAIR development and application of ontologies and other Linked Open Data resources and the organization, presentation and dissemination of knowledge in biomedicine and the life sciences. BOSC covers the full spectrum of open source, open science, open data and open standards in the life sciences.
[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. It will take place during the last two days of ISMB/ECCB.
[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.
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Key Dates
About BOSC
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