With a little help from your friends! -Learning bioinformatics online.

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.

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Zehra Köksal: My unforgettable experience presenting accessible software to 1000 forensic experts

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.

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Urszula Włodkowska: Building Brains in Canada

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. Urszula Włodkowska, a PhD Researcher at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the University of Waterloo’s Nengo Summer School.

In June of 2024, I had a great opportunity to attend the University of Waterloo’s Nengo Summer School (also known as Brain Camp). This was only possible thanks to the fellowship I received from the Open Bioinformatics Foundation.

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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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My Journey at the nf-core Hackathon and Nextflow Summit 2023: Coding and Community

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. Raquel Manzano Garcia, a PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the Nextflow Summit 2023 .

This October, I had the incredible opportunity to attend the Nextflow Summit 2023 in Barcelona, thanks to the support of a generous travel grant from the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) and my supervisor Prof. Carlos Caldas. The eent wasn’t just a conference; it was a confluence of ideas, coding, and camaraderie, set against the vibrant backdrop of one of Spain’s most iconic cities.

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Yvonne Walburga: Journeys across oceans

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. Dr Yvonne Joko Walburga, a Post-doc at the University of Cambridge, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) Cancer Conference.

I initially applied for the OBF Travel Fellowship to attend the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) Genomics Conference, and was accepted, but the timing was too tight. Happily, the board agreed to defer my funding to the next AORTIC Conference in November 2023 instead. So, I could make it for the AORTIC conference in Dakar, Senegal from November 2nd – 6th 2023 with support from the OBF Travel Fellowship and the African Cancer Registry Network.

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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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Michell Salcan: My Wonderful Experience at LANET 2023 in Cusco, Peru

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. Michell Salcan, an undergraduate at the Universidad Regional Amazonica Ikiami, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to atten d The 3rd Latin American Conference on Complex Networks in Cusco, Peru.

The week of August 21 to 25 has been one of the most beautiful and satisfying experiences of my personal life and the beginning of my professional life because I had the opportunity to attend and present my undergraduate thesis at the LANET 2023 event.

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Embracing Science and Culture: My Memorable Conference Experience at SMBE23 in Ferrara, Italy

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. Nehemiah Ongeso, an MSc graduate at the University of Nairobi, was awarded an OBF Event Fellowship to attend the SMBE23 conference.

Attending a prestigious conference can be a turning point in any scientist’s career; for me, it was no exception. The Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) conference, hosted in Ferrara, Italy, was an unparalleled experience that combined cutting-edge scientific research with a unique cultural immersion. As a recipient of a travel grant from the Open Bioinformatics Foundation, I participated in the extraordinary SMBE23 conference, which broadened my horizons and inspired me to pursue even greater heights in my postgraduate research.

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