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Call for new SIB courses

Become a SIB Trainer on your favourite bioinformatics topic!

SIB provides training for researchers as part of its mission to accelerate research and innovation. The SIB Training Group organises over 60 courses annually targeting PhD students, postdoctoral and other researchers in life sciences in collaboration with SIB experts and trainers. This collaborative approach ensures that our courses are delivered by knowledgeable and experienced experts in their respective fields. With their emphasis on hands-on exercises, SIB courses are immensely popular, and many are oversubscribed.

We continuously monitor the evolving needs of the scientific community, looking for experts to teach new, leading-edge topics to expand the SIB Training portfolio. We are looking for trainers for courses we plan to propose in 2024 such as applications of AI in life sciences, GWAS, multi-omics, single-cell technologies.

Are you working on one of these topics or at the cutting edge of a field in bioinformatics? Do you like to teach and share your knowledge with others? If so, we would love to hear from you. You will find more information below if you are interested in collaborating with us on this initiative.

Let’s develop and provide training on the latest bioinformatic methods and data for the scientific community together!

What you gain

  • Professional training support to reach out to a broad audience and coordinate the course
  • Refine your instructional, leadership and communication abilities, and/or let new members acquire these new skills by involving them as course assistants
  • Teach biologists and clinicians about your favourite topic of interest, by helping them to understand and tackle research problems, and improve their skills
  • Receive direct feedback from the users of your resource on improvements, bugs and expectations
  • Initiate new collaborations and strengthen old ones, by exchanging knowledge between SIB Members
  • Strengthen the team spirit of your group by working together for the course preparation

Timeline

Important Dates Definition
15 Sep Deadline for course proposals
17 - 25 Sep Selection process
26 Sep SIB courses acceptance notification
20 Oct SIB courses programs online (dates, final title and description)
Jan - Dec of following year Course taught

How to submit your proposal

Proposals should not exceed 2 pages and must include:

  • A description of the course (title of the course, topic, content, relevance to the students, motivation, expected goals, learning objectives)
  • Target audience, estimated audience size and possible prerequisites
  • An outline of the course schedule/structure
  • A brief CV of the trainers with relevant qualifications and teaching experience
  • Course logistics: in which quarter of the next year that course could take place, if streamed or in person

Please submit your proposal by sending the document to the contact person by the given deadline.

Evaluation criteria

The evaluation committee, composed of the SIB Training Group members, will consider the following criteria in assessing the proposals:

  • Novelty and timeliness of the topic
  • Complementarity to the SIB Training portfolio
  • Relevance to the target audience
  • Format and potential for interactivity (good balance between the theoretical component and hands-on exercises)
  • Completeness, clarity, and quality of the proposal and materials including schedule of the course
  • Educational value and effectiveness of the proposed presentation approach and FAIRness of the data, tools and content
  • Expertise of the trainers

Responsibilities

SIB Training Group will be responsible for:

  • Announcing the detailed course description of the upcoming SIB courses page on the SIB’s website (2 months before the course takes place).
  • Advertising on SIB Training social media (based on material/information received from the trainers).
  • Providing a meeting venue with necessary technical equipment and catering services during coffee breaks for the in person courses.
  • Providing a spot in an ELIXIR-GOBLET Train-the-Trainer course to improve your teaching skills.
  • Providing support to make your training materials open and FAIR.

Course trainers will be responsible for:

  • Finalising the course description, detailed schedule and providing material by the specific course deadlines (3 months before the course takes place).
  • Compiling and distributing material to the participants (before or during the course).
  • Leading and teaching the training at the defined time frame.
  • Ensuring that the course materials are legally used, and that appropriate copyright permissions have been arranged.
  • Guaranteeing that course materials are as much as possible open and FAIR. Trainers agree that their material may be made available in any form (at least a month in advance, the latest at the start of the course) on the SIB Training website.

Rules

  • SIB Training Group reserves the right to cancel a scheduled course, in agreement with the trainers, if registration one month before the course is less than 15 participants.
  • All the in-person courses will take place onsite in Switzerland. To foster exchanges and interactivity during the sessions, participants, organisers and presenters must be present in-person.
  • SIB Training Group will pay for travel and accommodation costs for a maximum of three trainers travelling within Switzerland for the in person courses.
  • The SIB group teaching will receive 600 CHF per day of course.

How we will implement the last rule of the 600 CHF? (Information to be provide to those who have been selected)

The SIB group teaching will receive 600 CHF per day of course. Under an ideal scenario, the SIB group that is giving the training will reiceive 600 CHF per day of course. This could be done as credits for registration in future SIB events (i.e. BC2 conference or SIB training courses). However, we understand it might not be on the best interest of the new trainer to receive these 600 CHF as credits, and the Trainer might prefer to receive the money in cash. We are willing to have a conversation to find to the best solution for both parties.