The de.NBI / ELIXIR-DE training platform - Bioinformatics training in Germany and across Europe within ELIXIR [version 2; peer review: 2 approved]

Abstract

The German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI) is a national and academic infrastructure funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The de.NBI provides (i) service, (ii) training, and (iii) cloud computing to users in life sciences research and biomedicine in Germany and Europe and (iv) fosters the cooperation of the German bioinformatics community with international network structures. The de.NBI members also run the German node (ELIXIR-DE) within the European ELIXIR infrastructure. The de.NBI / ELIXIR-DE training platform, also known as special interest group 3 (SIG 3) ‘Training & Education’, coordinates the bioinformatics training of de.NBI and the German ELIXIR node. The network provides a high-quality, coherent, timely, and impactful training program across its eight service centers. Life scientists learn how to handle and analyze biological big data more effectively by applying tools, standards and compute services provided by de.NBI. Since 2015, more than 300 training courses were carried out with about 6,000 participants and these courses received recommendation rates of almost 90% (status as of July 2020). In addition to face-to-face training courses, online training was introduced on the de.NBI website in 2016 and guidelines for the preparation of e-learning material were established in 2018. In 2016, ELIXIR-DE joined the ELIXIR training platform. Here, the de.NBI / ELIXIR-DE training platform collaborates with ELIXIR in training activities, advertising training courses via TeSS and discussions on the exchange of data for training events essential for quality assessment on both the technical and administrative levels. The de.NBI training program trained thousands of scientists from Germany and beyond in many different areas of bioinformatics.