Grant: Planning Grants - Priority Announcement: Infection and Immunity

The genomic era has brought exciting advances and opportunities to the health and life sciences research fields. Many new tantalizing discoveries in fields like cancer, HIV, diabetes, IBD and autism wait buried in the -omic data for skilled researchers to decipher their meaning. Bioinformatics has thus become a necessary skill for all health and life science researchers. Faced with the challenges imposed by this steady introduction of new high-throughput technologies, increasingly larger and more complex data sets, and an explosion of new informatic tools and databases, researchers worldwide are seeking bioinformatics training and knowledge translation opportunities to advance their health research activities. Without these skills, research progress is haltingly slow because of a lack of trained professionals capable of working with -omic era data. In an effort "to share not duplicate effort, to share not duplicate cost, and to work together in a mutually respectful way towards common training solutions and a sustainable future", international bioinformatics training organizations have come together to form the Global Organization for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET). With a common training goal in mind, bioinformatic leaders from these various international societies, networks and organizations have joined together under GOBLET to coordinate worldwide bioinformatics training activities. The critical next step for GOBLET to achieve a coordinated international effort in bioinformatics training activities that will advance health and life science research is to establish priorities and an action plan for GOBLET. This CIHR proposal brings together leaders from 21 bioinformatics organizations, under Canada's lead, for a 2.5-day face-to-face action planning meeting to develop a set of action items, a draft internationally coordinated funding application and a publication that will advance health research on the international stage.