1. Ten simple rules for organizing a bioinformatics training course in low- and middle-income countries
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Patricia Carvajal-López, Piraveen Gopalasingam, Amel Ghouila, Sarah L. Morgan, Guilherme Oliveira, Verena Ras, Paballo Abel Chauke, Alice Matimba, Alejandro Reyes, Selene L. Fernandez-Valverde, Nicola Mulder, Marco Cristancho, Javier De Las Rivas, Fatma Z. Guerfali, Victoria Dominguez Del Angel, Benjamin Moore, Wellcome Trust, National Institutes of Health (US), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK), Global Challenges Research Fund, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), Universidad de Salamanca, and Instituto Nacional de Bioinformática (España)
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Budgets ,Financial Management ,Economics ,Computer science ,Social Sciences ,Economic Geography ,Database and Informatics Methods ,Learning and Memory ,0302 clinical medicine ,Sociology ,Simple (abstract algebra) ,Psychology ,Biology (General) ,0303 health sciences ,Geography ,Ecology ,4. Education ,Software Engineering ,ComputingMilieux_GENERAL ,Professions ,Interdisciplinary Placement ,Editorial ,Computational Theory and Mathematics ,Modeling and Simulation ,Low and Middle Income Countries ,Educational Status ,Engineering and Technology ,Workshops ,Curriculum ,Human learning ,Computer and Information Sciences ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Bioinformatics ,QH301-705.5 ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,Training course ,MEDLINE ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Education ,Computer Software ,Human Learning ,03 medical and health sciences ,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience ,Genetics ,Learning ,Animals ,Humans ,Molecular Biology ,Developing Countries ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,030304 developmental biology ,Cognitive Psychology ,Sustainability science ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Computational Biology ,Data science ,Trainees ,Low and middle income countries ,Instructors ,People and Places ,Earth Sciences ,Cognitive Science ,Population Groupings ,Finance ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Neuroscience - Abstract
© 2021 Moore et al., Bioinformatics training is required at every stage of a scientist’s research career. Continual bioinformatics training allows exposure to an ever-changing and growing repertoire of techniques and databases, and so biologists, computational scientists, and healthcare practitioners are all seeking learning opportunities in the use of computational resources and tools designed for data storage, retrieval, and analysis. There are abundant opportunities for accessing bioinformatics training for scientists in high-income countries (HICs), with well-equipped facilities and participants and trainers requiring minimal travel and financial costs alongside a range of general advice for developing short bioinformatics training courses [1–3]. However, regionally targeted bioinformatics training in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often requires more extensive local and external support, organization, and travel. Due to the limited expertise in bioinformatics in LMICs in general, most bioinformatics training requires a fair amount of collaboration with experts beyond the local community, country, or region. A common model of training, used as the basis of this article, includes a local host collaborating with local, regional, and international experts gathering to train local or regional participants. Recently, there has been a growth of capacity strengthening initiatives in LMICs, such as the Pan African Bioinformatics Network for Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3ABioNet) Initiative [4–6], the Capacity Building for Bioinformatics in Latin America (CABANA) Project [7], the Asia Pacific BioInformatics Network (APBioNet) [8], and the Wellcome Connecting Science Courses and Conferences program [9]. One of the important strands of these initiatives is a drive to organize and deliver valuable bioinformatics training, but organizing and delivering short bioinformatics training workshops in an LMIC present a unique set of challenges. This paper attempts to build upon the sage advice for organizing bioinformatics workshops with specific guidance for organizing and delivering them in LMICs. It describes the processes to follow in organizing courses taking into consideration the low-resource setting. We should also note that LMICs are not a monolithic group and that setting, context, temporality, and specific location matters. LMICs are a complex regional grouping [10] and should be treated as such; however, we will present some common lessons that we hope will help organizers and trainers of bioinformatics training events in LMICs to navigate the often different, challenging, and rewarding experience., The authors who contributed to this manuscript are funded as follows: BM receives salary support from Wellcome Trust grants [WT108749/Z/15/Z, WT108749/Z/15/A], PC, VR, NM, AG’s salaries are funded in whole, or in part, by the NIH Common Fund H3ABioNet grant [U24HG006941], MC, SLFV, AR, PG, PCL’s salaries were partly funded by the UKRI-BBSRC ‘Capacity building for bioinformatics in Latin America’ (CABANA) grant, on behalf of the Global Challenges Research Fund [BB/P027849/1], JDLR is funded by ISCiii AES [ref. PI18/00591] at the CSIC/USAL (Spain) and by CYTED, RIABIO (Red Iberoamericana 521RT0118), AM’s salary is funded by [WT206194/Z/17/Z], GO is funded by the CABANA grant and SM is funded by the EMBL-EBI.
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- 2021