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. Jacqueline Wahura Waweru, a PhD researcher at the University of Cape Town and International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the annual Royal Entomological Society Conference (Ento24).

I was privileged to virtually attend the annual Royal Entomological Society conference Ento24 ( Ento24: In-person - Royal Entomological Society), which took place on 10th to 12th September at the University of Liverpool, UK. The theme of the conference was insect science. Diverse speakers spanning various sub-themes, including pest and natural enemies, host microbiome interactions, genetics and genomics, vector surveillance and control, among others were present. This being the first broad range insect conference that I have ever attended, the diversity in the range of sub-themes covered at the conference made me fully appreciate the diversity in research and interests in the various insect species being presented. Each speaker was eligible to give a 15-minute presentation on their work.

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. Erin (Rin) Krichilsky, a PhD researcher at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the 27th International Congress of Entomology (ICE2024 Kyoto).

This year, I had the privilege to co-host the symposium “Bee diversity in East and Southeast Asia: Systematics and Status of the Fauna” at the International Congress of Entomology (ICE) in Kyoto, Japan. The symposium hosted eight researchers from Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Thailand, and Nepal working in universities and government institutions. Each researcher gave a 15-minute presentation about bee studies in their region. Open data was a central theme, as many novel findings are discovered through DiscoverLife and the community science platform iNaturalist, and project results are posted to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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. Masturina Binti Md Mansor, a PhD student at the Universiti Putra Malaysia, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend Asia & Pacific Bioinformatics Joint Congress 2024.

I flew in to Okinawa, Japan, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 21st October 2024 for the first ever Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Joint Conference 2024 (APBJC). It was my first international conference as a PhD candidate, a memorable milestone that I will cherish as I push forth in my research journey. This APBJC was successfully brought together by the big houses of bioinformatics in the region, namely the Japanese Society for Bioinformatics (JSBi), the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNET), the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), the Genome Informatics Workshop (GIW), and the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Conference (APBC). Digital advertisements flashed through the streets of Kokusai Dori in Naha in anticipation of the 4-day event (22nd October - 25th October) as the city welcomed around 700 participants from all around the world, bringing together researchers, scientists, academicians, industry players and other science/tech enthusiasts alike. The conference took place at the Naha Cultural Arts Theatre (NAHart), off the main street of Kokusai Dori.

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. Tanakamol Mahawan, a PhD student at the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology , University of Liverpool, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend Asia & Pacific Bioinformatics Joint Congress 2024.

This year’s Asia & Pacific Bioinformatics Joint Conference (APBJC 2024) in Okinawa was a special milestone for me; it was the first conference I attended since moving back to Thailand from the UK. Now a new lecturer at a Thai university, I felt a unique excitement and gratitude stepping into this event, thrilled by the chance to reconnect with the vibrant bioinformatics community in Asia Pacific and meet others passionate about advancing open science.

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. Li Chuin Chong, a PhD student at the TWINCORE Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research GmbH & Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Germany, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend 23rd European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB2024).

I sincerely offer my gratitude to Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) for the partial support, which allowed me to participate in the 23rd European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB2024) in Turku, Finland. This was a milestone in my academic journey, as it marked my first international bioinformatics conference as a PhD candidate and my first-ever visit to Finland. This enabled me to share our findings from my PhD project, besides offering a platform to meet and interact with computational scientists from worldwide.

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. Jacob González Isa, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge (started October 2024) and formerly an MSc student at the Technical University of Madrid, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the first Congress of the Spanish Society of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (SEBiBC).

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.

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.

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. Felipe de Jesús Castañeda Córdova, an MD/MS student from LIIGH-UNAM (Laboratorio Internacional para la Investigacion sobre el Genoma Humano) Mexico was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the EMBL-EBI Cancer Genomics and Transcriptomics 2024.

My name is Felipe de Jesús Castañeda Córdova. I am an MD/MS student from Mexico, primarily focusing on the wet lab aspect of lab work at the Cancer Genetics and Bioinformatics Lab. I had limited experience with bioinformatics (I performed some transcriptomic analyses for my master’s project, and I got the bug!), so I decided to apply to the online EMBL-EBI Cancer Genomics and Transcriptomics 2024 course. I was fortunate to be accepted into the program and receive an OBF Event Fellowship, which helped me cover the registration fee.

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. Zehra Köksal, a Research assistant at the University Of Copenhagen and Karolinska Institute was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the 30th Congress of the International Society for Forensic Genetics.

In September 2024, the Open Bioinformatics Foundation enabled me to attend the biennial conference for Forensic Geneticists from the biggest forensic genetics society worldwide – the International Society of Forensic Genetics (ISFG) - that took place in Santiago de Compostela in beautiful Spain.