Call for Proposals: Special Interest Groups and Satellite Meetings - ISMB 2016
Chair: Christine Orengo, University College London, United Kingdom
Co-chair: Alan Christoffels, University of Western Cape, South Africa
** Submissions - Submissions close October 9, 2015
** Download SIG Guidelines
** Download Satellite Meeting Guidelines
We invite you to submit a proposal to organize a Special Interest Group (SIG) or Satellite Meeting (SM) at ISMB 2016 conference, which will be held at the Swan and Dolphin Hotel, Orlando, United States, July 8 and 9, 2016.
Submissions should be submitted via the online submission system here by October 9, 2015.
A SIG meeting is a one- or two-day focused workshop. It should provide a broad and/or deep perspective on developments in a field of research, and is intended as a way to address a topic more extensively than can be done in the main conference.
A Satellite Meeting is similar to a SIG meeting but has logistical or financial needs that do not fit conveniently into the SIG structure. Satellite Meeting proposals will be considered along with SIG proposals. SIG delegates will not be able to attend Satellite Meeting sessions and vice versa, and handout materials will be separate as well.
Follow these links to see examples of previous SIGs and SMs:
ISMB/ECCB 2015 (Dublin)
ISMB 2014 (Boston)
ISMB/ECCB 2013 (Berlin)
In order to facilitate conference organization, these deadlines will be adhered to strictly.
SIG and Satellite Meetings will be held during the two days prior to the main conference: Friday and Saturday, July 8 and July 9. On the first day, SIGs will be held in parallel with the Student Council Symposium; on the second day, with the conference Applied Knowledge Exchange Sessions (AKES). Participants will register for a primary SIG and will be free to circulate between parallel sessions only on the day of the meeting(s) they are registered for.
Proposals should indicate a preference for which days its meeting will be held if submitting a one-day only proposal; the organizers will try to respect these preferences but do not guarantee that all SIGs will receive their preferences.
SIG organizers are responsible for the scientific content of the SIG meeting. They may invite speakers, publish a call for submissions, or use a combination. They are expected to operate within the context of ISMB procedures, including finalizing the program and providing materials by the deadlines, working within the budget, etc.
Delegates to all SIG meetings will receive handouts from all SIG meetings, to facilitate movement between sessions. The handouts may be available in electronic form and/or printed form - this will be confirmed at a later date.
Organizers will collect and prepare handout materials. They are responsible for ensuring that the material that they submit may be legally used and that appropriate copyright permissions have been arranged. Speakers are expected to grant permission to ISMB to copy and distribute these materials, including making them available for sale.
SIG organizers should consider hosting and maintaining a SIG website.
Please pay particular attention to the deadlines for submitting the program of speakers and the handout materials (in electronic form). SIG participation is much more effective when delegates can view the schedules on the web ahead of the meeting and when they receive the handouts from all SIGs together.
ISCB will handle the logistics of holding the SIG meeting in conjunction with ISMB 2016 and will take the financial risk for holding the meeting. This includes managing registration, promoting the meeting, preparing delegate handouts from the provided materials, providing a room and audio-visual services (Internet access, projector & screen, microphones, etc.), and supplying food and beverages for breaks and lunches.
SM organizers are responsible for the scientific content of the meeting. They may invite speakers, publish a call for submissions, or use a combination. They are expected to operate within the context of ISMB procedures, including finalizing the program and providing materials by the deadlines, working within the budget, etc.
SM organizers are, in addition, responsible for the financial and contractual obligations of the meeting. They are therefore responsible for signing and accepting responsibility for all contracts regarding arrangements for their meeting, including venue, catering, printing, etc., and any deposits required for these contracts. Contracts shall be in the name of the SM or the organizer’s host institution, and signed by an authorized SM organizer. This requirement applies whether or not the SM uses ISCB’s meeting-planning services.
Organizers will collect and prepare handout materials. They are responsible for ensuring that the material that they submit may be legally used and that appropriate copyright permissions have been arranged. Speakers are expected to grant permission to ISMB to copy and distribute these materials, including making them available for sale.
SM organizers should consider hosting and maintaining a SM website.
Please pay particular attention to the deadlines for submitting the program of speakers and the handout materials (in electronic form). Delegate participation is much more effective when delegates can view the schedules on the Web ahead of the meeting.
The following documents contain more details about organizing SIGs and SMs. If this webpage conflicts with one of these documents, the document overrides the webpage. Please read the relevant documents carefully.
If you are unsure whether your meeting is best held as a SIG or SM, please review the document “Is my meeting a SIG or a Satellite Meeting?”.
If you are proposing to organize a SIG, please review the document “SIG details.”
If you are proposing to organize an SM, please review the document “Satellite details.”
Please prepare your proposal in accordance with the instructions from the relevant document in the “For more detailed information” section. The entire proposal should be no more than four pages long.
Proposals should be submitted in Acrobat (.pdf) format. Name the file using the family name of the first organizer (i.e., John Doe's proposal should be in a file named doe.pdf).
Submit proposals here by Friday, October 9, 2015
- Proposals will be evaluated by the Special Interest Group committee.
The following criteria will be considered:
• Relevance and interest of the proposed program to attendees;
• Relevant expertise and experience of the organizers;
• Effectiveness of the proposed SIG meeting organization;
• Clarity, quality, and completeness of the proposal. - Contact information
Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions.