An international consensus on effective, inclusive, and career-spanning short-format training in the life sciences and beyond

Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) fields change rapidly and are increasingly interdisciplinary. Commonly, STEMM practitioners use short-format training (SFT) such as workshops and short courses for upskilling and reskilling, but unaddressed challenges limit SFT's effectiveness and inclusiveness. Education researchers, students in SFT courses, and organizations have called for research and strategies that can strengthen SFT in terms of effectiveness, inclusiveness, and accessibility across multiple dimensions. This paper describes the project that resulted in a consensus set of 14 actionable recommendations to systematically strengthen SFT. A diverse international group of 30 experts in education, accessibility, and life sciences came together from 10 countries to develop recommendations that can help strengthen SFT globally. Participants, including representation from some of the largest life science training programs globally, assembled findings in the educational sciences and encompassed the experiences of several of the largest life science SFT programs. The 14 recommendations were derived through a Delphi method, where consensus was achieved in real time as the group completed a series of meetings and tasks designed to elicit specific recommendations. Recommendations cover the breadth of SFT contexts and stakeholder groups and include actions for instructors (e.g., make equity and inclusion an ethical obligation), programs (e.g., centralize infrastructure for assessment and evaluation), as well as organizations and funders (e.g., professionalize training SFT instructors; deploy SFT to counter inequity). Recommendations are aligned with a purpose-built framework-"The Bicycle Principles"-that prioritizes evidenced-based teaching, inclusiveness, and equity, as well as the ability to scale, share, and sustain SFT. We also describe how the Bicycle Principles and recommendations are consistent with educational change theories and can overcome systemic barriers to delivering consistently effective, inclusive, and career-spanning SFT.

Bioschemas training profiles: A set of specifications for standardizing training information to facilitate the discovery of training programs and resources

Stand-alone life science training events and e-learning solutions are among the most sought-after modes of training because they address both point-of-need learning and the limited timeframes available for "upskilling." Yet, finding relevant life sciences training courses and materials is challenging because such resources are not marked up for internet searches in a consistent way. This absence of markup standards to facilitate discovery, re-use, and aggregation of training resources limits their usefulness and knowledge translation potential. Through a joint effort between the Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET), the Bioschemas Training community, and the ELIXIR FAIR Training Focus Group, a set of Bioschemas Training profiles has been developed, published, and implemented for life sciences training courses and materials. Here, we describe our development approach and methods, which were based on the Bioschemas model, and present the results for the 3 Bioschemas Training profiles: TrainingMaterial, Course, and CourseInstance. Several implementation challenges were encountered, which we discuss alongside potential solutions. Over time, continued implementation of these Bioschemas Training profiles by training providers will obviate the barriers to skill development, facilitating both the discovery of relevant training events to meet individuals' learning needs, and the discovery and re-use of training and instructional materials.

Biocuration - mapping resources and needs

Background: Biocuration involves a variety of teams and individuals across the globe. However, they may not self-identify as biocurators, as they may be unaware of biocuration as a career path or because biocuration is only part of their role. The lack of a clear, up-to-date profile of biocuration creates challenges for organisations like ELIXIR, the ISB and GOBLET to systematically support biocurators and for biocurators themselves to develop their own careers. Therefore, the ELIXIR Training Platform launched an Implementation Study in order to i) identify communities of biocurators, ii) map the type of curation work being done, iii) assess biocuration training, and iv) draw a picture of biocuration career development. Methods: To achieve the goals of the study, we carried out a global survey on the nature of biocuration work, the tools and resources that are used, training that has been received and additional training needs. To examine these topics in more detail we ran workshop-based discussions at ISB Biocuration Conference 2019 and the ELIXIR All Hands Meeting 2019. We also had guided conversations with selected people from the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute. Results: The study illustrates that biocurators have diverse job titles, are highly skilled, perform a variety of activities and use a wide range of tools and resources. The study emphasises the need for training in programming and coding skills, but also highlights the difficulties curators face in terms of career development and community building. Conclusion: Biocurators themselves, as well as organisations like ELIXIR, GOBLET and ISB must work together towards structural change to overcome these difficulties. In this article we discuss recommendations to ensure that biocuration as a role is visible and valued, thereby helping biocurators to proceed with their career.

Biocuration - mapping resources and needs

Background: Biocuration involves a variety of teams and individuals across the globe. However, they may not self-identify as biocurators, as they may be unaware of biocuration as a career path or because biocuration is only part of their role. The lack of a clear, up-to-date profile of biocuration creates challenges for organisations like ELIXIR, the ISB and GOBLET to systematically support biocurators and for biocurators themselves to develop their own careers. Therefore, the ELIXIR Training Platform launched an Implementation Study in order to i) identify communities of biocurators, ii) map the type of curation work being done, iii) assess biocuration training, and iv) draw a picture of biocuration career development. Methods: To achieve the goals of the study, we carried out a global survey on the nature of biocuration work, the tools and resources that are used, training that has been received and additional training needs. To examine these topics in more detail we ran workshop-based discussions at ISB Biocuration Conference 2019 and the ELIXIR All Hands Meeting 2019. We also had guided conversations with selected people from the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute. Results: The study illustrates that biocurators have diverse job titles, are highly skilled, perform a variety of activities and use a wide range of tools and resources. The study emphasises the need for training in programming and coding skills, but also highlights the difficulties curators face in terms of career development and community building. Conclusion: Biocurators themselves, as well as organisations like ELIXIR, GOBLET and ISB must work together towards structural change to overcome these difficulties. In this article we discuss recommendations to ensure that biocuration as a role is visible and valued, thereby helping biocurators to proceed with their career.

A framework to assess the quality and impact of bioinformatics training across ELIXIR

ELIXIR is a pan-European intergovernmental organisation for life science that aims to coordinate bioinformatics resources in a single infrastructure across Europe; bioinformatics training is central to its strategy, which aims to develop a training community that spans all ELIXIR member states. In an evidence-based approach for strengthening bioinformatics training programmes across Europe, the ELIXIR Training Platform, led by the ELIXIR EXCELERATE Quality and Impact Assessment Subtask in collaboration with the ELIXIR Training Coordinators Group, has implemented an assessment strategy to measure quality and impact of its entire training portfolio. Here, we present ELIXIR’s framework for assessing training quality and impact, which includes the following: specifying assessment aims, determining what data to collect in order to address these aims, and our strategy for centralised data collection to allow for ELIXIR-wide analyses. In addition, we present an overview of the ELIXIR training data collected over the past 4 years. We highlight the importance of a coordinated and consistent data collection approach and the relevance of defining specific metrics and answer scales for consortium-wide analyses as well as for comparison of data across iterations of the same course.

Ten simple rules for making training materials FAIR

Everything we do today is becoming more and more reliant on the use of computers. The field of biology is no exception; but most biologists receive little or no formal preparation for the increasingly computational aspects of their discipline. In consequence, informal training courses are often needed to plug the gaps; and the demand for such training is growing worldwide. To meet this demand, some training programs are being expanded, and new ones are being developed. Key to both scenarios is the creation of new course materials. Rather than starting from scratch, however, it's sometimes possible to repurpose materials that already exist. Yet finding suitable materials online can be difficult: They're often widely scattered across the internet or hidden in their home institutions, with no systematic way to find them. This is a common problem for all digital objects. The scientific community has attempted to address this issue by developing a set of rules (which have been called the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable [FAIR] principles) to make such objects more findable and reusable. Here, we show how to apply these rules to help make training materials easier to find, (re)use, and adapt, for the benefit of all.

A new pan-European Train-the-Trainer programme for bioinformatics: pilot results on feasibility, utility and sustainability of learning

Demand for training life scientists in bioinformatics methods, tools and resources and computational approaches is urgent and growing. To meet this demand, new trainers must be prepared with effective teaching practices for delivering short hands-on training sessions—a specific type of education that is not typically part of professional preparation of life scientists in many countries. A new Train-the-Trainer (TtT) programme was created by adapting existing models, using input from experienced trainers and experts in bioinformatics, and from educational and cognitive sciences. This programme was piloted across Europe from May 2016 to January 2017. Preparation included drafting the training materials, organizing sessions to pilot them and studying this paradigm for its potential to support the development and delivery of future bioinformatics training by participants. Seven pilot TtT sessions were carried out, and this manuscript describes the results of the pilot year. Lessons learned include (i) support is required for logistics, so that new instructors can focus on their teaching; (ii) institutions must provide incentives to include training opportunities for those who want/need to become new or better instructors; (iii) formal evaluation of the TtT materials is now a priority; (iv) a strategy is needed to recruit, train and certify new instructor trainers (faculty); and (v) future evaluations must assess utility. Additionally, defining a flexible but rigorous and reliable process of TtT ‘certification’ may incentivize participants and will be considered in future.

Bioinformatics on a national scale: an example from Switzerland

Switzerland has been a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics since the early 1980s. As time passed, the need for one entity to gather and represent bioinformatics on a national scale was felt and, in 1998, the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics was created. Hence, 2018 marks the Institute's 20th anniversary. Today, the Institute federates 65 research and service groups across the country-whose activity domains range from genomics, proteomics, medicine and health to structural biology, systems biology, phylogeny and evolution-and a group whose sole task is dedicated to training. The Institute hosts 12 competence centres that provide bioinformatics and biocuration expertise to life scientists across the country. SIB sensed early on that the wealth of data produced by modern technologies in medicine and the growing self-awareness of patients was about to revolutionize the way medical data are considered. In 2012, it created a Clinical Bioinformatics group to address the issue of personalized health, thus working towards a more global approach to patient management, and more targeted and effective therapies. In this respect, SIB has a major role in the Swiss Personalized Health Network to make patient-related data available to research throughout the country. The uniqueness of the Institute's governance structure has also inspired the structure of other European life science organizations, notably ELIXIR.

The ELIXIR-EXCELERATE Train-the-Trainer pilot programme: empower researchers to deliver high-quality training

One of the main goals of the ELIXIR-EXCELERATE project from the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme is to support a pan-European training programme to increase bioinformatics capacity and competency across ELIXIR Nodes. To this end, a Train-the-Trainer (TtT) programme has been developed by the TtT subtask of EXCELERATE's Training Platform, to try to expose bioinformatics instructors to aspects of pedagogy and evidence-based learning principles, to help them better design, develop and deliver high-quality training in future. As a first step towards such a programme, an ELIXIR-EXCELERATE TtT (EE-TtT) pilot was developed, drawing on existing 'instructor training' models, using input both from experienced instructors and from experts in bioinformatics, the cognitive sciences and educational psychology. This manuscript describes the process of defining the pilot programme, illustrates its goals, structure and contents, and discusses its outcomes. From Jan 2016 to Jan 2017, we carried out seven pilot EE-TtT courses (training more than sixty new instructors), collaboratively drafted the training materials, and started establishing a network of trainers and instructors within the ELIXIR community. The EE-TtT pilot represents an essential step towards the development of a sustainable and scalable ELIXIR TtT programme. Indeed, the lessons learned from the pilot, the experience gained, the materials developed, and the analysis of the feedback collected throughout the seven pilot courses have both positioned us to consolidate the programme in the coming years, and contributed to the development of an enthusiastic and expanding ELIXIR community of instructors and trainers.

Developing a strategy for computational lab skills training through Software and Data Carpentry: Experiences from the ELIXIR Pilot action

Quality training in computational skills for life scientists is essential to allow them to deliver robust, reproducible and cutting-edge research. A pan-European bioinformatics programme, ELIXIR, has adopted a well-established and progressive programme of computational lab and data skills training from Software and Data Carpentry, aimed at increasing the number of skilled life scientists and building a sustainable training community in this field. This article describes the Pilot action, which introduced the Carpentry training model to the ELIXIR community.

The GOBLET training portal: a global repository of bioinformatics training materials, courses and trainers

Summary: Rapid technological advances have led to an explosion of biomedical data in recent years. The pace of change has inspired new collaborative approaches for sharing materials and resources to help train life scientists both in the use of cutting-edge bioinformatics tools and databases and in how to analyse and interpret large datasets. A prototype platform for sharing such training resources was recently created by the Bioinformatics Training Network (BTN). Building on this work, we have created a centralized portal for sharing training materials and courses, including a catalogue of trainers and course organizers, and an announcement service for training events. For course organizers, the portal provides opportunities to promote their training events; for trainers, the portal offers an environment for sharing materials, for gaining visibility for their work and promoting their skills; for trainees, it offers a convenient one-stop shop for finding suitable training resources and identifying relevant training events and activities locally and worldwide.

Availability and implementation:http://mygoblet.org/training-portal

Contact:manuel.corpas@tgac.ac.uk

Fifteen years SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics: life science databases, tools and support

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (www.isb-sib.ch) was created in 1998 as an institution to foster excellence in bioinformatics. It is renowned worldwide for its databases and software tools, such as UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot, PROSITE, SWISS-MODEL, STRING, etc, that are all accessible on ExPASy.org, SIB's Bioinformatics Resource Portal. This article provides an overview of the scientific and training resources SIB has consistently been offering to the life science community for more than 15 years.

LC/MS data processing for label-free quantitative analysis

In this chapter, we describe the use of SuperHirn and MSight, two complementary tools developed to the processing of label-free LC/MS data in view of the quantitation of proteomics samples. While MSight is mainly dedicated to the visualisation and navigation into LC/MS data, SuperHirn is specialised in peak detection, normalisation and alignment of LC/MS runs. These two tools can be used in a complementary way and one of the possible usages is described here.

A suite of tools to analyse and publish 2-DE data

Bioinformatics tools may assist scientists in all steps of a typical 2-DE gel analysis workflow, that is, from the description of the sample preparation protocols, going through the gel image analysis and protein identification, to the publication of Internet-ready 2-DE gel databases. This short communication highlights in a single and summarised view, this workflow and the current bioinformatics solutions developed by the Proteome Informatics Group at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics.

EuPA achieves visibility - an activity report on the first three years

Plans for the European Proteomics Association (EuPA) were conceived and established during 2004 and 2005, and culminated in the formal inception of the organisation during the 4th HUPO World Congress held in Munich in 2005. The mission from the outset has been three-tiered and is to: i) strengthen the national Proteomics organizations in their efforts; ii) to co-ordinate and provide educational programs, and iii) to advance the networking of scientists through meetings, workshops and student exchange. Linked to the mission were objectives to emphasise the benefits and contributions of Proteomics to biological and industrial researchers, the general public and science policy makers in Europe. In addition, the EuPA set out to promote scientific exchange for all applications and technology development related to Proteomics, and coordinate joint activities of national Proteomics societies at the European level. To achieve these tasks an organisational structure was conceived whereby four Activity Committees (Conferences/Communications, Education, EuPA-HUPO-Interactions and Funding) were implemented and a General Council consisting of all member countries. The remarkable rise and progress the EuPA has achieved in this small time frame is reported here.

Promoting proteomics knowledge in Europe: report on the activities of the EuPA Education Committee 2006-2007

The early transition of knowledge from highly specialised and sophisticated proteomics research to a diverse community in need of know-how is a challenge that requires backing from advanced research centres and groups, and a coordinating body for the dissemination of this knowledge. The European Proteomics Association (EuPA) Education Committee signified this as a priority area when the EuPA was formed, and began its program to coordinate proteomics training and knowledge dissemination in 2006. This report serves as an update of our past activities and an announcement of upcoming events. Over the last year the EuPA Education Committee has coordinated or supported different educational activities including basic and advanced courses, a summer school, workshops and tutorials. A new programme of basic courses dubbed "Teaching the Teachers" has been initiated. These courses reach a larger, Europe wide, audience in a short timeframe, thus improving the opportunities for trainees of elementary proteomics techniques. Another important event has been the merger of the EuPA and HUPO (Human Proteome Organisation) Education Committees into a single one in order to combine ideas and ef for ts that will favour global education in proteomics.

Proteome informatics I: Bioinformatics tools for processing experimental data

Bioinformatics tools for proteomics, also called proteome informatics tools, span today a large panel of very diverse applications ranging from simple tools to compare protein amino acid compositions to sophisticated software for large-scale protein structure determination. This review considers the available and ready to use tools that can help end-users to interpret, validate and generate biological information from their experimental data. It concentrates on bioinformatics tools for 2-DE analysis, for LC followed by MS analysis, for protein identification by PMF, by peptide fragment fingerprinting and by de novo sequencing and for data quantitation with MS data. It also discloses initiatives that propose to automate the processes of MS analysis and enhance the quality of the obtained results.

SPS' Digest: The Swiss Proteomics Society selection of proteomics articles

Despite the consolidation of the specialized proteomics literature around a few established journals, such as Proteomics, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, and the Journal of Proteome Research, a lot of information is still spread in many different publications from different fields, such as analytical sciences, MS, bioinformatics, etc. The purpose of SPS' Digest is to gather a selection of proteomics articles, to categorize them, and to make the list available on a periodic basis through a web page and email alerts.

MSight: An image analysis software for liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

Images obtained from high-throughput mass spectrometry (MS) contain information that remains hidden when looking at a single spectrum at a time. Image processing of liquid chromatography-MS datasets can be extremely useful for quality control, experimental monitoring and knowledge extraction. The importance of imaging in differential analysis of proteomic experiments has already been established through two-dimensional gels and can now be foreseen with MS images. We present MSight, a new software designed to construct and manipulate MS images, as well as to facilitate their analysis and comparison.

Melanie II--a third-generation software package for analysis of two-dimensional electrophoresis images: I. Features and user interface

Although two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) computer analysis software packages have existed ever since 2-DE technology was developed, it is only now that the hardware and software technology allows large-scale studies to be performed on low-cost personal computers or workstations, and that setting up a 2-DE computer analysis system in a small laboratory is no longer considered a luxury. After a first attempt in the seventies and early eighties to develop 2-DE analysis software systems on hardware that had poor or even no graphical capabilities, followed in the late eighties by a wave of innovative software developments that were possible thanks to new graphical interface standards such as XWindows, a third generation of 2-DE analysis software packages has now come to maturity. It can be run on a variety of low-cost, general-purpose personal computers, thus making the purchase of a 2-DE analysis system easily attainable for even the smallest laboratory that is involved in proteome research. Melanie II 2-D PAGE, developed at the University Hospital of Geneva, is such a third-generation software system for 2-DE analysis. Based on unique image processing algorithms, this user-friendly object-oriented software package runs on multiple platforms, including Unix, MS-Windows 95 and NT, and Power Macintosh. It provides efficient spot detection and quantitation, state-of-the-art image comparison, statistical data analysis facilities, and is Internet-ready. Linked to proteome databases such as those available on the World Wide Web, it represents a valuable tool for the "Virtual Lab" of the post-genome area.

Melanie II--a third-generation software package for analysis of two-dimensional electrophoresis images: II. Algorithms

After two generations of software systems for the analysis of two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) images, a third generation of such software packages has recently emerged that combines state-of-the-art graphical user interfaces with comprehensive spot data analysis capabilities. A key characteristic common to most of these software packages is that many of their tools are implementations of algorithms that resulted from research areas such as image processing, vision, artificial intelligence or machine learning. This article presents the main algorithms implemented in the Melanie II 2-D PAGE software package. The applications of these algorithms, embodied as the feature of the program, are explained in an accompanying article (R. D. Appel et al.; Electrophoresis 1997, 18, 2724-2734).

Simulation of Cortex Visual Cells for Texture Segmentation: Foveal and Parafoveal Projections

The objective of this work is to simulate visual cortical cells, their sensitivities to frequencies and orientations, and their part in texture segmentation. The simulation of these cells is realised through band-pass, oriented filters (Gabor filters), and multiresolution image decomposition. By this means, the filter sensitivities represent cell sensitivities to preferred orientations according to their frequency and orientation bandwidths, and multiresolution represents the different band frequencies.

For texture analysis and segmentation, overlaying of band-pass filters is necessary to completely cover the Fourier domain. A continuous sensitivity to frequency and orientation is achieved by the filters overlapping and consequently by their interpolation. We used here four octave frequency bands from 1 to 16 cycles deg−1 and six orientations per band. The results obtained for texture segmentation with these parameters are very promising (up to 97% recognition rate) [Guérin-Dugué and Palagi, 1994 Neural Processing Letters1(1) 25 – 29]. The images analysed cover a multitude of different domains such as psychophysical tests and natural textures of different roughness.

In order to create a cortical cell representation closer to neurophysiological data, and to improve texture segmentation results, we represent cell sensitivities by their foveal and parafoveal projections [R L DeValois, K K DeValois, 1988 Spatial Vision (Oxford: Oxford Science Publications)]. Cells receiving projections from the foveal zone are modeled by five octave frequency bands (from 0.5 to 16 cycles deg−1) and six orientations. Cells receiving projections from the parafoveal zone have the same sensitivities but are modeled by four octave frequency bands (from 0.5 to 8 cycles deg−1). By using these two different resolutions, preliminary tests have shown the capability of detecting textured regions by the parafoveal projection and localisation of boundaries by the foveal projection.