Date: November 4, 2013 – November 5, 2013
Venue: The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC), Norwich, United Kingdom
Workshop Aims
Expected Outcomes
Programme
Day 1
Lunchtime-Afternoon
12:00 Lunch & registration
What are the training needs? What are you doing to address these needs? What can you offer at pan-
European level that’s sustainable? What is your vision for pan-European over-arching training strategy?
14.30 Coffee break
Defining aims/milestones we aspire to achieve (registry of trainers/materials, bootcamps/hackathons,
scaling up, e-learning etc.?)
16:30 Present milestones, establish who will work on what – Actions
18.00 Day 1 closes
19:00 Dinner
Day 2
Morning-Lunchtime
09:00 In groups, define specific (achievable) deliverables and Actions
(with clear time-lines, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms)
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Present and discuss agreed actions, formulate road-map
12:00 Lunch
14:00 Meeting closes
Outcomes
The event focused on several key areas: raising awareness, the bioinformatics curriculum, and recognition and accreditation for bioinformatics training.
Discussions took place around the need to avoid redundancy across the diverse training efforts, and especially in creating multiple repositories. Emphasis was placed on the importance of synchronising developments, both on a national and international level. For example the GOBLET training portal that already exists (www.mygoblet.org/training-portal) needs to be considered alongside future plans coming from the ELIXIR Nodes.
In terms of the bioinformatics curriculum it was agreed that it is important to:
- Liaise with community/target audiences to understand their needs in order to design relevant courses;
- Liaise with existing programmes (e.g., GOBLET), and consult them about the courses based on the experience they already have;
- Benchmark against other courses.
To achieve this, plans are in the pipeline to organise events in international settings, such as a special session at ISMB in Boston in July 2014, and a discussion group at ECCB in Strasbourg in September 2014.
The need to define standards and appropriate benchmarking was agreed, as was the need to disseminate best working practice. It was also decided that evaluation by trainees and by trainers (peers) should be considered to ensure learning had been transformative.
The meeting closed with a set of agreed objectives and a proposal to meet again in six months to ensure momentum is maintained.
The meeting generated lots of discussion, both during and after the event: Titus Brown shared his thoughts about the meeting, and has since shared his reflections on bioinformatics training suites.