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Welcome
to ISMB/ECCB 2004
Well,
the conference is upon us. We hope that it will prove to be fertile
ground for lively discussion, new ideas, the forging of new acquaintances
and the renewal of old ones. As we tick off the final checkboxes
on our task list and rejoice in a record year in terms of submissions
and registration numbers, we have begun to consider why over 2000
people from all over the world decided to come to Glasgow to talk
bioinformatics.
Let's think
back to almost two years ago, when three organizations - the EBI,
the UK Research Councils' Collaborative Computational Project in
Bioinformatics (CCP11), and the Bioinformatics Research Centre at
the University of Glasgow - independently decided that the time
was ripe to host ECCB in the UK. It is testimony to the close-knit
nature of the UK bioinformatics community that they discussed their
ideas and put together a joint bid, which subsequently evolved into
the unanimous decision to host ECCB together. Almost simultaneously
this decision evolved into the idea of bidding to jointly host ECCB
with ISMB, which was planning a return to Europe after a two year
absence and looking for a host site. Hence, with approval from both
the ECCB Steering Committee, and the ISCB Board of Directors, ISMB/ECCB
2004 was born.
As Europe's
host for the core biomolecular data resources, the European Bioinformatics
Institute (EBI) has a responsibility to promote computational biology
in Europe. What better way to do this than to host an international
conference? CCP11 is used to bringing UK bioinformaticians together:
it has been organizing the UK's biennial bioinformatics conference,
Genes, Proteins and Computers, for sixteen years. ECCB operates
a rotating scheme in which the host country's bioinformatics society
organizes ECCB each year, so there was a perfect fit between CCP11
and ECCB.
The UK has one
of the largest and strongest bioinformatics communities in the world,
and has a well-developed system for training bioinformaticians,
so we were confident that we could count on the support of the UK's
bioinformaticians to make ISMB/ECCB 2004 a success. Scotland, in
particular, has a rapidly growing bioinformatics community, with
a number of organizations undertaking cutting-edge bioinformatics
initiatives including the recently formed Scottish Bioinformatics
Forum. Scottish Enterprise, Scotland's main economic development
agency and one of our platinum sponsors, is actively promoting the
development of biotechnology and bioinformatics in Scotland. As
we're sure you'll agree as soon as you see the Scottish Exhibition
and Conference Centre and experience Glasgow's unique hospitality,
Glasgow is also a wonderful conference city.
Despite the
potential complications of four hosts and three conferences combining
forces, the planning process has run like a well-oiled machine thanks
to the efforts of many people. This is your conference; we hope
that each and every delegate finds it both scientifically and socially
stimulating, from the pipers at the beginning to the prizes at the
end.
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