Norwich, United Kingdom
September 17, 2014
In collaboration with the bioinformatics Coordination Action ‘AllBio’, we are hosting a three-day workshop on open science and reproducibility in our brand new training suite.
Held in our new training suite part-funded by BBSRC, the interactive workshop brings together both researchers and non-researchers from different life science fields with one common interest: open science and reproducibility.
Openness not only exists in terms of publications and data, but can be applied to the research process itself. More than ever, given the magnitude of data in bioinformatics, the ability to adopt best practice in workflows, standards, tools for data storage and sharing as well as its analysis, is imperative to making progress in science discovery.
Researchers require clear and accessible mechanisms to share methods, data, processes, annotations and protocols. The era of cyber infrastructure brings great opportunities for sharing and enhancing this collaboration among the life sciences community.
After sequencing the human genome, much time and money was spent on the development of bioinformatics approaches needed to harvest the wealth of genetic information. AllBio aims to adapt and transfer these human-genome-related computational technologies to the fields of microbial, plant and livestock science.
The workshop focused on themes such as the use of standards to facilitate tool and data interoperation, sharing and re-use, and how these can feed into the creation of robust frameworks and guidelines to help foster and promote reproducible research and open science - a particular case study was built around Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) best practice. With contributions from a variety of stakeholders (including journal editors, researchers, data scientists and project managers), the discussions were lively and varied, and highlighted the need for training at all levels of the ‘open research life cycle’.
Vicky Schneider, Head of Scientific Training, Education & Learning (361° Division) at TGAC, said: “I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to welcome such a fantastic mix of ‘open-minded’ people, and to see so much enthusiasm and work towards the future of Open Science and Reproducible Research. Allbio has enabled us to get this workshop to take off, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the ideas and actions develop”.
Terri Attwood, Professor of Bioinformatics at the University of Manchester and one of AllBio’s UK partners, said, “This has been an extremely valuable workshop for AllBio, opening up the project results to, and bringing on board, new people, ideas and perspectives, allowing us to work together towards concrete outcomes. I hope this is the start of a new beginning for us all.”
Sarah Cossey, Director of Operations at TGAC, added: “I was a very pleased to be able to welcome the AllBio workshop attendees to TGAC today as the first users of our new training suite. The facilities we have been able to create means that we can offer our international training and workshop programme attendees the very latest in training environments”
‘AllBio, broadening the bioinformatics infrastructure to unicellular, animal and plant science’ (KBBE.2011.3.6-02) is an EU-FP7 Coordination and Support Action, aiming to support the development of bioinformatics infrastructures for the effective exploitation of genomic data, beyond health applications, coordinated by Dr. Erik Bongcam-Rudloff (http://www.allbioinformatics.eu/).
TGAC is strategically funded by BBSRC and operates a National Capability to promote the application of genomics and bioinformatics to advance bioscience research and innovation.
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