GOBLET - GLOBAL ORGANIZATION FOR BIOINFORMATICS LEARNING, EDUCATION AND TRAINING

By Fran Lewitter

Teresa Attwood, GOBLET chair

GOBLET, the Global Organization for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training, was conceived in 2012 to bring together a range of organizations involved in bioinformatics education and training activities. GOBLET was subsequently established as a Dutch Foundation, and held its first formal meeting in Amsterdam in November 2012, hosted by The Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre (NBIC). ISCB is a founding member of GOBLET and an active participant of the consortium -- e.g., together, we established the first education poster track at ISMB 2013; in 2014, we created the first Computational Biology Education (CoBE) Community of Special Interest; and we've also helped survey the gaps and perceived bioinformatics training needs amongst life scientists.

In addition to individual members, GOBLET members currently include about 25 institutions/organizations. An up-to-date list of member institutions and additional information is available at www.mygoblet.org. More details about GOBLET's formation and achievements in its first year can be found in EMBnet.journal 20 (dx.doi.org/10.14806/ej.20.0.751) and EMBnet.journal, 19 (http://dx.doi.org/10.14806/ej.19.1.606)

GOBLET's mission is to:
1. Provide a global, sustainable support and networking structure for bioinformatics educators/trainers and trainees (including a portal for sharing materials, tools, tips and techniques; guidelines and best practice documents; and facilities to help train the trainers)
2. Facilitate capacity development in bioinformatics in all countries
3. Develop standards and guidelines for bioinformatics education and training
4. Act as a hub for fund gathering
5. Reach out to, amongst others, teachers at high schools, to bridge the gap to the next generation of bioinformaticians, and
6. Foster the international community of bioinformatics, biocomputing, biocuration and computational biology trainers
GOBLET's first elections were held in 2013 to appoint its officers and committee chairs. The executive committee (and their organizational affiliations) includes Terri Attwood, chair (EMBnet); Vicky Schneider, vice chair (TGAC); Michelle Brazas, secretary (Bioinformatics.ca); and Fran Lewitter, treasurer (ISCB). The operational board also includes committee chairs for Learning, Education and Training; Outreach and PR; Standardization;
Fund-raising and Technical (see Figure 1). We hold regular meetings for the executive committee and operational board; committee chairs also hold meetings with their committees on a regular basis too. In addition, an Annual General Meeting (AGM) is held in the fall each year, which is open to all organizational and individual members. The 2013 meeting was held in Norwich UK at The Genome Analysis Center (TGAC). The 2014 AGM is scheduled to be held in Toronto in November, hosted by Bioinformatics.ca, with additional funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).

Getting Involved
GOBLET is an energetic and young organization. Currently, around two-thirds of our member institutions are European. However, we are a global organization and are actively working to reach out to institutions around the world to join us. We welcome your ideas and involvement. Send email to info@mygoblet.org if you are interested in participating in GOBLET's activities. Please stop by to talk with us and see our poster at ISMB 2014 for more information.