Travel-Fellowship

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.

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!

The OBF Community Support Sponsorship scheme aims to sponsor small open-source-focused events like a scientific meeting, small conference, training workshop, hackathon, or time-limited series like monthly seminars. See details in this post. One application was funded under this program to prototype the workflow, with OBF offering financial support for a seminar series hosted by the Bioinformatics Hub Kenya. Congratulations to Michael Kofia Landi for leading this application and working collaboratively with the BHKi team – Pauline Karega, David Kiragu, Margaret Wanjiku and Festus Nyasimi – and OBF Board including Treasurer Heather Wiencko, to help establish a process for this new type of OBF funding.

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. Festus Nyasimi, A co-founder and lead of the Bioinformatics Hub of Kenya Initiative (BHKi), attended the ISMB/BOSC conference 2022, supported by this fellowship granted to him in the first round of 2022.

In mid-May, I attended a different conference where I shared my experience with community building in the bioinformatics space with one of the attendees. I had a chance to brief them about the BHKI community we are building and growing in Africa. Immediately they suggested I should check out the ISMB/BOSC conference happening on July 11th - 14th, 2022.

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. Jemima Becker, DPhil student at Merton College, University of Oxford, attended the EMBO workshop: “Neural stem cells: From basic understanding to translational applications", supported by this fellowship granted to him in the first round of 2022.

This June, I had the opportunity to travel to the EMBO workshop: “Neural stem cells: From basic understanding to translational applications”. There, I presented a poster documenting the first six months of my PhD work on long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the postnatal ventricular-subventricular (V-SVZ): “Long noncoding RNAs in the Ventricular-Subventricular zone: what have we learnt from single cell transcriptomics?”.

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. Furkan M. Torun, Data Scientist at OmicEra Diagnostics & Computational Biologist, attended the PyCon Italia 2022, supported by this fellowship granted to him in the first round of 2022.

Background

As it is shown in the surveys of the programming languages used and the latest publications in the field of bioinformatics/computational biology, Python has experienced unprecedented growth. Meanwhile, to spread knowledge, learn from each other, and make new networks for Pythonistas, several Python conferences (“PyCon”), are held annually by the international communities worldwide.

As previously described, during the November 2021 public Board meeting, the OBF announced two new initiatives to be voted on by the OBF membership. Both of these received a large majority of votes:

1. OBF Community Support Sponsorship (53 for, 3 against, 2 abstaining)
2. OBF Code of Conduct (54 for, 2 against, 1 abstaining)

The work to set up the new Community Support Sponsorship is underway. The new Code of Conduct is now available on the OBF website.

The BOSC-OBF 2021 Event Support Fund was awarded to Ariel Mundo Ortiz, a researcher from the University of Arkansas, to participate in BOSC 2021, an annual conference hosted by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF). Based on the OBF Event Fellowship program, this fund aimed to facilitate the participation of diverse researchers from historically underrepresented groups at BOSC to help wider awareness and adoption of open source bioinformatics practices in the biological research community. Find more information here.

The call for application for the second round of this year’s Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) Event Fellowship is open. Please submit your application before October 1, 2021 (save a calendar reminder).

Just announced: deadline extended to October 4, 2021!

Please apply via this Google application form: https://forms.gle/7ocmgvypiFHeFNfy7.

The OBF Event Fellowship program is aimed at increasing diverse participation at events promoting open science practices such as open source bioinformatics resource development and dissemination in the biological research community. These fellowships are available to support both in-person and remote (virtual) participation at events such as conferences, workshops, training courses or collaborative development sprints. See more details on our webpage.

Thanks to funding from our sponsors, we are opening a special call for applications to the BOSC-OBF Event Support Fund. This fund aims to increase participation of members from groups otherwise underrepresented in BOSC or in bioinformatics community events in general, including but not limited to underrepresented demographic groups (country of residence and citizenship), ethnic background (historically underrepresented and other minority groups), career stages, gender identity and expression, people with disabilities and members from low income/resource organisations.