ISMB  2010 – Call for Conference Workshop Proposals

** Workshop Submission Form **

Conference Workshop Track Chair: Jill Mesirov, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, USA

Workshops are two hour sessions held during ISMB 2010 and covers a broad interest of topics not primarily research oriented. The purpose of the workshop track is to bring together people with common interests to discuss defined topics. Workshops are viewed as sessions with more structure than the "Birds of a Feather" (BoF) and a format that can include mulitple talks and ample discussion time. Previous workshops have included Funding Opportunities, Education in Bioinformatics, and Bioinformatics Core Facilities.

Technical instructions:

Workshops run the same schedule as all other parallel tracks. They must be designed as half-day sessions (2 hours) and synchronized with other tracks. The regular presentation unit is 30 minutes consisting of 20 minute talks + 5 minute discussion + 5 minutes for movement between parallel tracks. Workshops may include any form of presentation such as talks or panel discussions.

Preference will be given to topics of wide interest to attendees, with a planned program agenda that is not primarily made up of research paper presentations. Potential fields of interest include Funding Opportunities, Education in Bioinformatics (sponsored by the Education committee), and Bioinformatics Core Facilities. Additional topics of particular interest to the ISMB community or those sponsored by ISCB committees are welcome.

Proposals for Workshops should be submitted via the online submission system here prior to Friday, February 12, 2010.

Submissions must include up to a one-page description of the topic, its relevance to the ISMB community, and the reasons for planning a workshop on this topic at ISMB 2010.  These explanations could be followed by a list of topics for possible presentations with one-paragraph descriptions. Finally, a draft time schedule for the workshop should be presented. A finalized list of speaker names is not necessary but may add validity to the proposal. If you list invited speakers as "accepted", please make sure that they agree to speak understanding the financial constraints described below. Submitters should briefly describe their qualification/experience in organizing a workshop.

Workshop chairs and speakers must pay their expenses including registration to participate at the meeting. Therefore, the organizers highly encourage workshop organizers to seek independent funding, and to include any commitment that they may have secured in the proposal. ISMB will help in the administrative aspects of assigning the rooms, announcements and adding the detailed schedule to the conference program. Note that the ISMB cannot financially support the speakers or the workshop organizers.

All submissions will be evaluated by a committee,which will consider the following criteria:

• Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to ISMB attendees.
• Complementarity to the ISMB program provided by the other tracks.
• Completeness, clarity, and quality of the workshop proposal.
• Qualification of the submitter(s) to organize the workshop.
• Likely success of the proposed workshop.
• Overlap with other proposal or pre-selected activity.

Submitters of successful workshop proposals will be notified of their provisional acceptance by Friday, February 26, 2010.

The detailed schedule, names and affiliations of speakers, presentation titles and short abstract must be provided before April 23, 2010.