NextGen Biologists: Essential Computing Skills for Molecular Biology

Biological data is piling up. Molecular biologists at all levels (PhD students, PDRAs and PIs) are required to develop, modify, and use methods for data analysis that are realised in software. However, the necessary training for these researchers is lacking, which is having one of two effects: (1) vast amounts of data are sitting on hard drives around the world waiting for someone to analyse it and/or, (2) inexperienced researchers are carrying out the analyses that are in consequence unreliable or irreproducible.

Objectives:

1. To develop and deliver workshops for essential scientific programming and computational skills for Bioinformaticians.
2. To provide materials (including bioinformatic problem sets) for participants to use in their home institutes.
3. To "train the trainers" - generating the largest possible impact beyond the set workshops and well beyond the 2 years of this project.

We plan to design materials and deliver eight 3-day workshops and two "training the trainer workshops" over two years split between the University of Leeds and the University of Huddersfield.