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A global perspective on bioinformatics training needs

Michelle D. Brazas, Cath Brooksbank, Rafael C. Jimenez, Sarah Blackford, Patricia M Palagi, Javier De Las Rivas, B.F. Francis Ouellette, Judit Kumuthini, Eija Korpelainen, Fran Lewitter, Celia W.G. van Gelder, Nicola Mulder, Manuel Corpas, Maria Victoria Schneider, Tin Wee Tan, Dave Clements, Angela Davies, Teresa K. Attwood
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/098996
Michelle D. Brazas
1bioinformatics.ca, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, CA
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Cath Brooksbank
2EMBL-EBI, UK
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Rafael C. Jimenez
3EMBL-EBI, ELIXIR-Hub, UK
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Sarah Blackford
4Society for Experimental Biology, University of Lancaster, UK
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Patricia M Palagi
5SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, CH
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Javier De Las Rivas
6SolBio, Centro de Investigación del Cáncer, Universidad de Salamanca-CSIC, ES
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B.F. Francis Ouellette
1bioinformatics.ca, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, CA
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Judit Kumuthini
7Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research, ZA
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Eija Korpelainen
8CSC - IT Centre for Science, FI
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Fran Lewitter
9International Society for Computational Biology, USA
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Celia W.G. van Gelder
10Dutch Techcentre for Life Sciences, NL
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Nicola Mulder
11Computational Biology Division, IDM, University of Cape Town, ZA
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Manuel Corpas
12The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich Research Park, UK
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Maria Victoria Schneider
12The Genome Analysis Centre, Norwich Research Park, UK
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Tin Wee Tan
13Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network, National University of Singapore, SG
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Dave Clements
14Galaxy Training Network, John Hopkins University, USA
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Angela Davies
15Nowgen, University of Manchester, UK
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Teresa K. Attwood
16UMBER, EMBnet Specialist Node, University of Manchester, UK
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Abstract

In the last decade, life-science research has become increasingly data-intensive and computational. Nevertheless, basic bioinformatics and data stewardship are still only rarely taught in life-science degree programmes, creating a widening skills gap that spans educational levels and career roles. To better understand this situation, we ran surveys to determine how the skills dearth is affecting the need for bioinformatics training worldwide. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found that respondents wanted more short courses to help boost their expertise and confidence in data analysis and interpretation. However, it was evident that most respondents appreciated their need for training only after designing their experiments and collecting their data. This is clearly rather late in the research workflow, and suboptimal from a training perspective, as skills acquired to address a specific need at a particular time are seldom retained, engendering a cycle of low confidence in trainees. To ensure that such skill gaps do not continue to create barriers to the progress of research, we argue that universities should strive to bring their life-science curricula into the digital-data era. Meanwhile, the demand for point-of-need training in bioinformatics and data stewardship will grow. While this situation persists, international groups like GOBLET are increasing their efforts to enlarge the community of trainers and quench the global thirst for bioinformatics training.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted February 27, 2017.
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A global perspective on bioinformatics training needs
Michelle D. Brazas, Cath Brooksbank, Rafael C. Jimenez, Sarah Blackford, Patricia M Palagi, Javier De Las Rivas, B.F. Francis Ouellette, Judit Kumuthini, Eija Korpelainen, Fran Lewitter, Celia W.G. van Gelder, Nicola Mulder, Manuel Corpas, Maria Victoria Schneider, Tin Wee Tan, Dave Clements, Angela Davies, Teresa K. Attwood
bioRxiv 098996; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/098996
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A global perspective on bioinformatics training needs
Michelle D. Brazas, Cath Brooksbank, Rafael C. Jimenez, Sarah Blackford, Patricia M Palagi, Javier De Las Rivas, B.F. Francis Ouellette, Judit Kumuthini, Eija Korpelainen, Fran Lewitter, Celia W.G. van Gelder, Nicola Mulder, Manuel Corpas, Maria Victoria Schneider, Tin Wee Tan, Dave Clements, Angela Davies, Teresa K. Attwood
bioRxiv 098996; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/098996

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