ISMB/ECCB 2007 will feature a special track of half-day special sessions that will run throughout the conference. These sessions have the purpose of introducing the ISMB/ECCB community to relevant scientific issues and topics that are typically not within the focus of an ISMB/ECCB meeting. Areas can be peripheral to but impacting bioinformatics, emerging areas or areas that the ISMB/ECCB community is facing but is not currently approaching with the desired proficiency.

Call for ISMB/ECCB 2007 Special Sessions Proposals

September 1, 2006
Call for Special Sessions Opens

October 29, 2006
Special Session Proposal Submission Deadline CLOSED

November 18, 2006
Special Session Acceptance Notification

January 27, 2007
Special Session Program Submission Deadline

February 16, 2007
Final Acceptance of Proposal

This call is an invitation for scientists and professionals working in the fields of bioinformatics and computational biology to submit proposals for special sessions for ISMB/ECCB 2007. Special sessions must be designed as half-day sessions (two-and-a-half hours for morning sessions, three hours for afternoon sessions) including a 30 minute break within. Sessions may include any form of presentation such as talks or panel discussions. Three special sessions (on the fields cheminformatics, statistics, and RNA) are pre-solicited. Additional sessions are covered by this open call. Any field of particular interest to the ISMB/ECCB community is eligible for a special session. Preference will be given to emerging fields and to neighboring fields in which the ISMB community needs to acquire higher proficiency.

Proposals for special sessions should be submitted to the email address sessions07@ismbconf.org prior to October 29, 2006. Submissions MUST include a one-page description of the field, its relevance to the ISMB community, and the reasons for planning a session on this field at ISMB/ECCB 2007. Furthermore, the submitter should detail his/her relationship to the field of the session and arguments for his/her qualification to organize the session. Then, a list of topics for possible presentations should follow with one-paragraph descriptions. Finally a draft of the time schedule for the session should be presented. A finalized list of speaker names is not necessary but may add weight to the proposal.

Proposals must be submitted in the Word or PDF templates provided.

All submissions will be evaluated by a committee, which will consider the following criteria:
• Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to ISMB/ECCB attendees
• Completeness, clarity, and quality of the session proposal
• Qualification of the submitter to organize the workshop
• Effectiveness of the proposed presentation approach.

Special sessions are expected to provide perspective on a field of research. They are not to focus on the presenters’ own research or software.
Submitters of successful session proposals will be notified of their provisional acceptance by November 18, 2006. A maximum of 3 sessions will be accepted for presentation at ISMB/ECCB 2007. Organizers of special sessions are not required but encouraged to prepare written material on the session that will be presented online at the beginning of the conference.
A complete version of the session schedule must be received by January 27, 2007, and the final acceptance decisions will be made by February 16, 2007.