What is BOSC?

BOSC is an annual meeting organized by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), a non-profit, volunteer-run group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of Open Source software development and Open Science within the biological research community.

Each BOSC ​includes keynote ​talks,​ talks chosen from submitted abstracts, ​poster​ ​sessions,​ ​panel, and ​lots​ ​of​ ​opportunities​ ​for​ ​networking. It is followed by​ ​collaborative​ ​working​ ​sessions​ ​at the CollaborationFest.​ ​These​ ​events​ ​bring​ ​together​ ​software​ ​engineers,​ ​bioinformaticians,​ ​and​ ​researchers​ ​to collaborate​ ​on ​open​ ​source​ ​bioinformatics​ ​tools and frameworks and approaches to open science.

Most years, BOSC has been part of the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology meeting (ISMB), which typically attracts over 2000 participants.

BOSC​ ​participants​ ​come​ ​from​ ​a​ ​wide​ ​variety​ ​of​ ​research​ ​environments​ ​and​ ​backgrounds:

• Biological​ ​researchers,​ ​students,​ ​and​ ​post-docs​
• Power​ ​bioinformatics​ ​users
• Bioinformatics​ ​tool​ ​and​ ​workflow​ ​developers
• Bioinformatics​-focused​ ​principal​ ​investigators​ ​and​ ​researchers
• Sequencing​ ​core​ ​facility​ ​staff
• Industry​ ​scientists​ ​and​ ​bioinformaticians
• Data​ ​scientists

Previous Events

BOSC​ has been held every​ ​year​ ​since​ ​2000.​ Most years, BOSC is part of the large Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology meeting (ISMB).

In 2018, BOSC partnered with the Galaxy Community Conference (GCC) in a very successful joint meeting in Portland, GCCBOSC 2018. In July 2020, BOSC again joined forces with GCC to form the Bioinformatics Community Conference (BCC2020). Held online, BCC2020 attracted over 600 participants from 62 countries.

BOSC 2021 was part of ISMB/ECCB 2021, and took place July 29-30, 2021 (followed by a two-day CollaborationFest).

BOSC 2022 was held July 13-14, 2022, as part of ISMB 2022 in person in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, and simultaneously online.

BOSC 2023 took place July 24-25, 2023 as part of ISMB/ECCB 2023 in Lyon, France and online. Like the previous year, we joined forces with Bio-Ontologies for part of a day!

BOSC 2024, the 25th annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference, took place July 15-16, 2024 as part of ISMB 2024 in Montreal, Canada and online. It was followed by CoFest 2024.

BOSC 2025 took place in Liverpool, UK, as part of the large ISMB/ECCB 2025 conference, which attracted a record 2238 participants. For the first time, CollaborationFest was part of the main ISMB/ECCB conference.

BOSC 2026 will be held in Washington, DC (with an online participation option) July 14-15, 2026 as part of ISMB 2026.

More about BOSC

Benefits of Sponsorship

Sponsoring BOSC increases your visibility in the bioinformatics community. We acknowledge our sponsors before, during and after the event in multiple ways:

• We list our sponsors on the BOSC website
• Sponsors are thanked and named in the introduction/closing slides during the meeting
• We show the sponsor logos on large BOSC posters displayed outside the meeting room and in the poster area
• The sponsors are thanked in selected emails to our mailing list and social media posts (with your logo) that go out before, during and after the event
• The sponsors are listed in our published reports after the meeting, e.g., https://f1000research.com/articles/7-1309/v1
• Platinum sponsors can show a short video before the first keynote
• Gold sponsors can show a short video some time during the conference
• We are open to discussing specific requests, such as distributing stickers or leaflets, or earmarking the sponsorship for a specific activity.

How sponsorships help BOSC

We gratefully accept sponsorships from private companies and organizations. In the past these sponsorships have enabled us to

• offer free registration to some BOSC participants
• support the OBF’s Event Fellowship program, increasing participation from underrepresented groups
• provide child care at the conference
• underwrite the cost of conference events such as dinners or refreshments at poster sessions
• help defray the cost of videography
• provide space and catering at the CollaborationFest
• offer honoraria to keynote speakers
• pay for captioning and translations

Sponsors from previous years

2025 Platinum Sponsor:

2025 Gold Sponsor:

2025 Silver Sponsor:

2024 Platinum Sponsors:

BOSC 2023 Platinum Sponsor

BOSC 2023 Silver Sponsors

BOSC 2022 Platinum Sponsors

BOSC 2022 Gold Sponsors

BOSC 2022 Silver Sponsors