Call for the second 2025 round of the OBF Event Fellowship & overview of the first round of 2025

The call for applications for round 2 of the OBF Event Fellowship for 2025 is now open. The deadline for this round is 1 August 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 August 1, 2025.

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The 2025 International Statistical Genetics Workshop - a goldmine of open-source genetic analysis tools and tutorials

Thanks to the Event Fellowship from Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), I was privileged to attend the 2025 International Statistical Genetics Workshop (ISG). ISG is an intensive, week-long workshop held annually in Boulder, Colorado that provides hands-on training in the principles and application of over a dozen open-access bioinformatics tools for analysis of genomic data. This workshop has been running since 1987 and boasts a faculty of world-renowned experts in statistical genetics from around the globe. The curriculum switches annually between family-based and population-based genetic studies. The focus this year was on the theory, performance, and interpretation of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and their downstream analyses.

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Call for the first 2025 round of the OBF Event Fellowship & overview of the last round of 2024

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. Awards are made three times a year; the next deadline is April 1, 2025. (For those who want to apply for BOSC, note that this is earlier than the BOSC/ISMB submission deadline of April 17.)

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Open source and open minds - a memorable experience: TBNSS 2024

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. Keerthana Padmanabhan, a PhD researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, INDIA, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the Transatlantic Behavioral Neuroscience Summer School 2024 (TBNSS 2024).

In September 2024, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Transatlantic Behavioral Neuroscience Summer School 2024 (TBNSS 2024) conducted in Mikolajki, Poland, from September 9th to 20th 2024 by the Nencki Open Lab, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS, Poland. First and foremost, this was made possible by the travel fellowship granted to me by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation, for which I am extremely grateful.

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Call for the third 2024 round of the OBF Event Fellowship & overview of the second round.

The call for applications for round 3 of the OBF Event Fellowship for 2024 is now open. The deadline for this round is 1 December 2024. 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 OBF Event Fellowship program aims to increase diverse participation at events that promote open-source bioinformatics and/or open science. We invite applications from candidates seeking financial support to attend relevant scientific events between January and December 2025. 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.

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Call for the second round of OBF Event Fellowship 2024 & overview of the last round of 2023.

The call for applications for the OBF Event Fellowship 2024, round 2, is now open. The deadline for this round is 1 August 2024. Applications should be submitted via 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 OBF Event Fellowship program aims to increase diverse participation at events that promote open-source bioinformatics and/or open science. We invite applications from candidates seeking financial support to attend relevant scientific events from September 2024 to March 2025. 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.

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Call for the first round of OBF Event Fellowship 2024 & overview of the last round of 2023

The call for applications for the OBF Event Fellowship 2024, round 1, is now open. The deadline for this round is 1 April 2024. Applications should be submitted via 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 OBF Event Fellowship program aims to increase diverse participation at events that promote open-source bioinformatics and/or open science. We invite applications from candidates seeking financial support to attend relevant scientific events from May 2024 to December 2024. 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.

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Call for the third round of OBF Event Fellowship 2023 & overview of the second 2023 round.

The call for applications for the OBF Event Fellowship 2023, round 3, is now open. The deadline for this round is 1 December 2023. Applications should be submitted via 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 OBF Event Fellowship program aims to increase diverse participation at events that promote open-source bioinformatics and/or open science. We invite applications from candidates seeking financial support to attend relevant scientific events from January 2024 to August 2024. 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.

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Ruth Nanjala: My experience attending and participating at the ICHG 2023 conference hosted in the Mother City

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. Ruth Nanjala, a DPhil student in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the International Congress of Human Genetics (ICHG) 2023 conference.

Earlier in 2022, I received the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) Event Fellowship for participating and promoting open science at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2022 conference in Los Angeles. However, I could not travel to ASHG due to unavoidable circumstances. Fortunately, OBF gave me a second chance by facilitating my travel to the International Congress of Human Genetics (ICHG) 2023 conference hosted at home (Africa is considered the cradle of humankind) between the 22nd and 26th of February.

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<strong>Microbiome (k)nights</strong>

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. Luise Rauer, a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to participate virtually in the 9th International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC) conference in November 2022.

What do a total lunar eclipse and the 9th International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC) conference have in common? While they are both exciting and rare events that started in Kobe, Japan, on 8th November 2022, they also happened in the very early morning for any spectator from Europe. With the IHMC conference starting at 1 a.m. for me as a virtual participant based in Central Europe, my very unique preparation for this conference included changing my sleeping rhythm to become a nighthawk for 3 days and nights. But it was worth it!

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