Bioinformatics training needs of Australian researchers

Much has changed in the world of bioinformatics in the last five years. New technologies have been developed (e.g. scRNAseq) and certain tools and platforms have become more accessible and popular among life scientists (e.g Galaxy, RStudio). The pandemic has also changed the way that we work and collaborate. 

One thing that hasn’t changed is researchers’ enthusiastic appetite for training in the latest bioinformatics techniques. To keep training relevant, training providers must regularly re-evaluate training needs and evolve their training offerings in response to changing needs of the community. 

The National Bioinformatics Training Cooperative surveyed Australian life science researchers to find out what training people already access; if their training needs are being met; and what format of training is preferred. The results of the survey are reported on Zenodo.

There is continued demand for training across a wide variety of bioinformatics topics (including omics analysis and programming languages) with new topics emerging since the community was last surveyed in 2016 (e.g. scRNAseq and machine learning). There has also been a shift in attitudes concerning the format of training with online training now more appealing than it was in the past 

This glimpse into the bioinformatics training needs of Australian life science researchers provides a platform for the discussion and prioritisation of bioinformatics training in Australia. The National Bioinformatics Training Cooperative is using the information from this survey to identify gaps in training offered, prioritise training topics and inform the development of our training program.

Read the outcomes in full in our report.