A Message from the ISCB President, ISMB 2020
Dear Colleagues/Members,
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ISCB has decided to convert ISMB 2020 into a virtual on-line conference.
The conference will still foster fresh dialogues, collaboration, and learning opportunities as it has always done. Here is what to expect in the virtual environment:
- Live and on-demand sessions to benefit attendees from all time zones
- More than 500 expected scientific talks
- Exclusive access to the ISMB 2020 on-demand repository of talks and poster presentations for viewing at your leisure after conference dates
- Live question and answer feature to engage with the speaker during sessions
- Live chat feature to engage with other participants within your session room
- A networking café for video meet ups with colleagues, friends, or future collaborators
- Opportunity to explore the virtual exhibit hall to chat & meet with exhibitors
- Opportunity to explore the virtual poster hall (yes, all of those great poster presentations in one place!)
- A virtual Career Fair
- A virtual ISCB Town Hall
We ask for your understanding that these services will not come for free. After much deliberation, the Executive Committee of ISCB has developed the following fee structure for attending ISMB 2020.
| ISMB 2020 Registration Rates (in USD) | |
| ISCB Professional Member - High Income | $225.00 |
| ISCB Postdoc Member - High Income | $150.00 |
| ISCB Student Member - High Income | $100.00 |
| ISCB Professional Member - Middle-Low Income | $75.00 |
| ISCB Postdoc Member - Middle-Low Income | $50.00 |
| ISCB Student Member - Middle-Low Income | $50.00 |
| ISCB Professional Member - Low Income |
$50.00 |
| ISCB Postdoc Member - Low Income | $25.00 |
| ISCB Student Member - Low Income | $25.00 |
| Nonmember Rates which include 1-year complimentary membership | |
| Professional Nonmember - High Income | $425.00 |
| Postdoc Nonmember - High Income | $280.00 |
| Student Nonmember - High Income | $185.00 |
| Professional Nonmember - Middle-Low Income | $120.00 |
| Postdoc Nonmember - Middle-Low Income | $75.00 |
| Student Nonmember - Middle-Low Income | $75.00 |
| Professional Nonmember - Low Income | $75.00 |
| Postdoc Nonmember - Low Income | $40.00 |
| Student Nonmember - Low Income | $40.00 |
The fees include full access to the online virtual platform of the conference as well as exclusive access to all of the content until Oct 31, 2020. From November 2020, the talks, with the appropriate permissions, will be available for free at ISCBtv.
With these fees, ISCB expects to end the fiscal year of 2020 by investing 25% of its assets. The ISCB Executive Committee has deliberately decided on this investment in order to continue to fulfill the mission of the Society in terms of scientific networking and presentation of scientific results. Higher fees would possibly be easier on ISCB’s operating budget but would be less attractive to the attendees of the conference and likely reduce participation. Lower fees would overly strain the budget of ISCB, as a further loss would significantly cut into the possibilities of the Society to serve its members in the future.
If you are unable to afford the participation fee for ISMB 2020 and hold an active ISCB membership, you can submit for a fellowship award that will cover the cost of the registration fees. With these unprecedented times, we will be opening up these awards to anyone who is an active ISCB member with priority going to members in low-income countries and students and postdoctoral fellows.
We hope that ISCB’s offer of a virtual conference at these rates is attractive to you and that you will decide to participate (oral and poster presentation opportunities are still available via the open call for submissions). While this new format has been pressed on us by the pandemic, we also see it as an opportunity to test new ways of networking in our society which spans the whole globe – ways that may prove beneficial also for times after we have controlled the pandemic.
Thank you for your continued support of ISCB. We hope you "see" you in July at ISMB 2020, ISCB’s first virtual conference connecting the world.
Sincerely,
Thomas Lengauer
ISCB President
