Weekly Brief, 27 July 2020

ELIXIR BioHackathon Europe 2020 goes virtual!

9-13 November 2020 | Now Online

We have decided to transform this intense interactive week of hacking into an online event because our number one priority is the safety of all participants.

But we also recognise this situation as an excellent opportunity to prove we can create an interactive yet virtual event. Let's put online platforms to the test!

Join us in this exciting week full of hacking projects, gamification surprises and virtual social hours!

Article published in PLoS Computational Biology on ELIXIR's bioinformatics training

The article, 'A framework to assess the quality and impact of bioinformatics training across ELIXIR', takes a deep dive into the reviewing process for training courses at ELIXIR.

The work outlines the coordinated strategy of the ELIXIR EXCELERATE Training Quality and Impact Subtask to assess the ELIXIR training programme. While taking a first look at the project aims, the authors then move into the intricacies of a strategy to collect core metrics and highlight a set of recommendations for quality assessment

Read the PLoS paper

ELIXIR-CONVERGE in Cordis Europa article

The article on 'Sharing data, exchanging expertise and coordinating tools for an effective COVID-19 response' praises the work of the COVID-19 Data portal. It emphasises the diversity of sources, the role of the SARS-CoV-2 Data Hubs and the Portal's connection to EOSC
To wrap up, ELIXIR-CONVERGE is mentioned as the overarching coordinating action that supports the EBI's COVID-19 Data Portal.

Go to the Cordis Europa article

Tip of the week

Did you know you can use the ELIXIR archive of pictures?

ELIXIR Flickr account offers a vast amount of photos from many of our collaborative meetings so that you can stop using stock-pictures. Use real and relevant images to advertise online/hybrid conferences and webinars or use them to highlight the collaborative nature of our Research Infrastructure.
Go to our Flickr albums

Updates from Nodes

ELIXIR-IT | Two new tools for viral strain classification and functional annotation

These two new tools are now available on GitHub:

The tools have been used to analyse over 20,000 viral genomes. The results of this use are currently under peer-review process and available as pre-print.
Read the pre-print article

ELIXIR-NL | Maastricht Univerisity receives 428,000 ZonMw grant to establish WikiPathways as a platform for COVID-19 pathway models

The Department of Bioinformatics (BiGCaT and Maastricht Centre for Systems Biology) received a COVID-19 ZonMw grant to establish this ELIXIR-NL Node service as a platform to strengthen collaboration within the international COVID-19 Disease Map project and improve integration with other relevant ELIXIR resources.
This ambitious project is led by Martina Kutmon and Friederike Ehrhart from ELIXIR-NL.

Go to the COVID-19 Pathway Collection
Read the ZonMv news release

Updates from Platforms

Two interesting topics from the recent ISMB2020 Conference

Want to join the global bioinformatics training community?

You might want to check out the GOBLET poster and pitch presented at the ISMB2020. ELIXIR Nodes have been heavily involved in GOBLET for many years four of the six Executive Board Members are from ELIXIR and ELIXIR has a collaboration agreement with GOBLET since 2015.
Check out the GOBLET poster
Listen to the GOBLET pitch
Discover more about GOBLET

Want to know about national approaches for data stewardship training?

You may want to check out the poster and pitch presented at the ISBM2020 on the NPOS-F project Professionalising data stewardship: competences, training and education. This project is led by Mijke Jetten and Celia van Gelder from DTL/ELIXIR-NL.
Check the NPOS-F poster
Check the NPOS-F pitch Upcoming ELIXIR events & webinars

ELIXIR Training Courses & Webinars

The ELIXIR TeSS portal has a variety of interesting events and courses organised by the ELIXIR Nodes. A link off to the TeSS portal

Comparative Genomicslectures and practicals

1618 September 2020 | Online

A guided tour through neXtProtlecture and practicals

22 September 2020 | Online

First Steps with UNIX in Life Sciences

23 September 2020 | Online

3-week course Delivering Research Data Management Services MOOC

Starting on 5 October 2020 | Online Aimed at individuals who support researchers to manage and share their data, including librarians, IT and information specialists, data stewards, and research office staff

ELIXIR Events and Conferences

19th European Conference on Computational Biology

31 August8 September 2020 | Online

Registration for the virtual ECCB2020 is now open!

EuroScience Open Forum

26 September 2020 | Trieste, Italy and Online

ELIXIR will present 'Open Data InfrastructureA Driver for Innovation Ecosystem' during the Science to business session (Track: Innovation Ecosystems).

ELIXIR BioHakacthon Europe

913 November 2020 | Now Online

Registration is now open!

Job vacancies

All vacancies are also published on the ELIXIR website (also including those from industry). If you need our help communicating your new open positions, you can submit a job advertisement and it will automatically appear on our newsletters. Go to our vacancy page to submit a job

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