TY - JOUR
T1 - Bioinformatics Training Network (BTN)
T2 - a community resource for bioinformatics trainers
AU - Schneider, Maria V
AU - Walter, Peter
AU - Blatter, Marie-Claude
AU - Watson, James
AU - Brazas, Michelle D
AU - Rother, Kristian
AU - Budd, Aidan
AU - Via, Allegra
AU - van Gelder, Celia W G
AU - Jacob, Joachim
AU - Fernandes, Pedro
AU - Nyrönen, Tommi H
AU - De Las Rivas, Javier
AU - Blicher, Thomas
AU - Jimenez, Rafael C
AU - Loveland, Jane
AU - McDowall, Jennifer
AU - Jones, Phil
AU - Vaughan, Brendan W
AU - Lopez, Rodrigo
AU - Attwood, Teresa K
AU - Brooksbank, Catherine
PY - 2012/5
Y1 - 2012/5
N2 - Funding bodies are increasingly recognizing the need to provide graduates and researchers with access to short intensive courses in a variety of disciplines, in order both to improve the general skills base and to provide solid foundations on which researchers may build their careers. In response to the development of 'high-throughput biology', the need for training in the field of bioinformatics, in particular, is seeing a resurgence: it has been defined as a key priority by many Institutions and research programmes and is now an important component of many grant proposals. Nevertheless, when it comes to planning and preparing to meet such training needs, tension arises between the reward structures that predominate in the scientific community which compel individuals to publish or perish, and the time that must be devoted to the design, delivery and maintenance of high-quality training materials. Conversely, there is much relevant teaching material and training expertise available worldwide that, were it properly organized, could be exploited by anyone who needs to provide training or needs to set up a new course. To do this, however, the materials would have to be centralized in a database and clearly tagged in relation to target audiences, learning objectives, etc. Ideally, they would also be peer reviewed, and easily and efficiently accessible for downloading. Here, we present the Bioinformatics Training Network (BTN), a new enterprise that has been initiated to address these needs and review it, respectively, to similar initiatives and collections.
AB - Funding bodies are increasingly recognizing the need to provide graduates and researchers with access to short intensive courses in a variety of disciplines, in order both to improve the general skills base and to provide solid foundations on which researchers may build their careers. In response to the development of 'high-throughput biology', the need for training in the field of bioinformatics, in particular, is seeing a resurgence: it has been defined as a key priority by many Institutions and research programmes and is now an important component of many grant proposals. Nevertheless, when it comes to planning and preparing to meet such training needs, tension arises between the reward structures that predominate in the scientific community which compel individuals to publish or perish, and the time that must be devoted to the design, delivery and maintenance of high-quality training materials. Conversely, there is much relevant teaching material and training expertise available worldwide that, were it properly organized, could be exploited by anyone who needs to provide training or needs to set up a new course. To do this, however, the materials would have to be centralized in a database and clearly tagged in relation to target audiences, learning objectives, etc. Ideally, they would also be peer reviewed, and easily and efficiently accessible for downloading. Here, we present the Bioinformatics Training Network (BTN), a new enterprise that has been initiated to address these needs and review it, respectively, to similar initiatives and collections.
KW - Community Networks
KW - Computational Biology
KW - Humans
KW - Research Personnel
U2 - 10.1093/bib/bbr064
DO - 10.1093/bib/bbr064
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 22110242
SN - 1467-5463
VL - 13
SP - 383
EP - 389
JO - Briefings in Bioinformatics
JF - Briefings in Bioinformatics
IS - 3
ER -