Call for Tutorials - ISMB/ECCB 2021

Chair: Annette McGrath, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia
Co-chair: Michelle Brazas, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Canada
Co-chair: Patricia M. Palagi, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Switzerland

Opens: November 9, 2020

Tutorial Submissions

This call is an open invitation to scientists and professionals working in the fields of bioinformatics and computational biology to submit high quality proposals for Tutorials at ISMB/ECCB 2021.

Tutorial Program at ISMB/ECCB 2021

The purpose of the Tutorials program is to build knowledge and provide hands-on training in "cutting-edge" topics relevant to the bioinformatics field and the COSI communities. Tutorials offer participants an opportunity to get an introduction to important established topics in bioinformatics, to learn about new areas of bioinformatics research, or to develop advanced skills in areas about which they are already knowledgeable. Tutorials may also serve to bring together people and COSI communities with common interests to discuss, debate and problem-solve defined topics.

Tutorials may include any form of presentation such as brief talks or hands-on exercises or panel discussions. Tutorials serve an educational function and are expected to provide a balanced perspective on a field of research. They should not focus on the presenters' own research or software, unless balanced with other tools in the same realm. However, tutorials on broadly used bioinformatics tools will be considered. Please note that if you wish to focus your talk on a demo of a specific software package, your proposal should be submitted to the Technology Track.

Potential topic areas (a list of Tutorials presented in 2020 is available here) may include but are not limited to the following:

• Analysis of long read-sequencing data
• AI and Machine Learning for bioinformatics
• GA4GH tools for data sharing
• Single-cell RNA, DNA or protein analysis
• Translational informatics: Opportunities for bioinformatics in the clinical realm
• Assembly of genomes in metagenomics
• How to make your software sustainable and reusable for open access or commercial usage
• Biological Sciences for Bioinformaticians (eg aimed at Comp-science graduates with less/no prior biology knowledge) 
• Data Science in Genomics
• Workflow tools (eg Snakemake, NextFlow)
• Data Visualization for Bioinformatics
• Bioinformatics on Cloud Platforms

• Best practices (eg learning github, Python coding standard PEP8 etc)

Tutorials organization

The ISCB leadership, ECCB leadership, and ISMB/ECCB 2021 Steering Committee continue to monitor the global COVID-19 pandemic, always keeping the health and safety of our membership and community at the top of our minds.   At this time, we remain optimistic that we will have the opportunity to gather together in Lyon, France in July 2021.   We understand that many of you may still be concerned about traveling under travel restrictions. Thus we are offering to our community the ability to attend the ISMB/ECCB 2021 conference either in person or virtually.  

Tutorials are planned to be in person, as noted above, or fully online, but should not be blended (with participants online and in person).

Tutorials should be designed as half-day (4 hours) or full-day (8 hours) sessions. Full day sessions would include a 1 hour lunch break from 1:00 - 2:00 pm. If in person lunch is not included as part of the registration fee.(15-minute coffee breaks are scheduled for 11:00 am and 4:00 pm and should also be listed in your agenda).

Compensation

The conference organizers are able to offer a complimentary conference registration for up to 3 tutorial presenters. Tutorial organizers may choose to share the value of the complimentary registration if the tutorial has additional presenters.

Submitting a Tutorial Proposal

Tutorial proposals should contain the following information in a maximum of 4 pages:

• Title of Tutorial
• Abstract for Tutorial
• Learning Objectives for Tutorial
• Maximum number of attendees participating
• Prefered tutorial delivery mode: 100% in person or 100% online.
  
• Draft Schedule of the tutorial including coffee breaks (half-day or full-day schedule) - Include draft talk titles or draft content to be covered in each section
• Draft List of Tutorial Speakers with titles and affiliations
• Intended audience and level - Describe the audience for which the Tutorial is aimed, and at which level it would be taught (e.g. beginner, past experience, advanced knowledge).

The final proposal must be uploaded as a PDF file only.

Deadline for Tutorial Proposals: Monday December 14, 2020

Click here to complete a submission for Tutorials. You will also be asked during the submission process to provide a brief description of the tutorial that will be used on the website to promote it to delegates, and to confirm that if selected, you will submit draft and final tutorial materials for committee review by the listed deadlines

Review of Tutorial Proposals

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

• Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to ISMB attendees and COSI communities
• Completeness, clarity, and quality of the proposal and materials including schedule of tutorial
• Educational value and effectiveness of the proposed presentation approach
• Overlap with tutorials held in 2020
• Educational value and effectiveness of the proposed presentation approach and FAIRness of the data, tools and content

Successful tutorial proposals will be notified by Friday January 29, 2021.

Tutorial Materials

The tutorial speakers agree to provide participants with teaching materials that include:

Copies of the final slides in Powerpoint or PDF format for posting online.
Copies of relevant articles/book chapters published by the presenters provided as Supplementary Information. Presenters will have to obtain copyright permission from their publishers, as required.
Links to repositories containing training materials.
Make your training materials FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), as much as possible.

Recording of Tutorial sessions

Tutorials programs will be recorded to serve as online learning tools following the conference. All presenters must agree to allow ISCB to post the recordings of the Tutorials program as a requirement of acceptance. 

Copyright

The authors will grant copyright to tutorial materials to the ISCB for a period to extend from acceptance through August 1, 2021, and they agree that their materials may be made available for use in perpetuity through ISCB.

Tutorial Contact Information

Correspondence from prospective instructors should be sent to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Call For Technology Track Submissions - ISMB/ECCB 2021

Chair: Hagit Shatkay, University of Delaware, United States

Prior to submitting please review the ISCB Exhibitor and Technology Track guidelines for presentations available here.

**Technology Track Submissions

The Technology Track allows organizations to showcase their software and/or hardware relevant to the bioinformatics / molecular biology community.

The ISCB leadership, ECCB leadership, and ISMB/ECCB 2021 Steering Committee continue to monitor the global COVID-19 pandemic, always keeping the health and safety of our membership and community at the top of our minds. At this time, we remain optimistic that we will have the opportunity to gather together in Lyon, France in July 2021. We understand that many of you may still be concerned about traveling under travel restrictions. Thus we are offering to our community the ability to attend the ISMB/ECCB 2021 conference either in person or virtually.

Technology Track

To conduct a Technology Track presentation, organizations must complete the on-line sign-up form including a brief description (50 words maximum) of the talk and a one (1) page Technology Track presentation overview (PDF) which will provide the delegate with additional details about the technology being presented and include a one page CV of the presenter as related to the topic. The presenter of the Technology Track must be a registered and paid delegate of the conference.

The cost to present a Technology Track is:

For profit organization: US$1200.00 (20 minutes)
Not for profit organization: US$850.00 (20 minutes)
*Additional 20 minutes at $200, maximum of 2 additional 20 minutes.

• Please note payment is due within 10 days of acceptance to ensure talk is included in the conference program schedule).
• Presentation fees do not include conference registration.

Technology Track Details:

• The Technology Track schedule is set by the organizers with sponsors given scheduling preference for presentation time slots;
• Each presentation is listed on conference web site and includes abstract and full page PDF overview;
• Technology Track presentation room, set theatre style, includes internet connection and audio-visual equipment (data projector, screen, microphone (all additional equipment required will be charged at cost to the presenting organization).

Presentations occur as part of the parallel track system. Individual time slots are on a 20 minutes schedule (3 talks per hour).

Presenters will be provided with a laptop computer and Internet access. If a specialied operating system or software is required presenters should bring their own computer and contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  at least one-week in advance of your presentation.

If you use the provided computer please bring a CD/Flash-drive containing any software and presentation material that needs to be loaded.

Within your time slot, you are at liberty to demonstrate your software in any way that you see fit: for example, you can combine one or more structured talks with live demos and question-and-answer sessions. Authors should consider providing handouts for attendees.

Acceptance and Confirmation

All submissions will be reviewed by the Technology Track selection committee and notification of acceptance will be forwarded no later than June 3, 2020. Technology Track presenters will be contacted by the conference organizers regarding presentation acceptance, Technology Track schedule, logistics and payment. Payment should not be made until organizations receive notification of acceptance.

For information on Technology Tracks contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

*** Click here to sign-up to complete your submission for the Technology Track ***