Where else can I find training?

This list provides a snapshot of some of the places you can find bioinformatics training and support. Is there something missing? Let us know and we can add it to the list.

Where to start your search

Google! Explore what’s happening in your local area, organisation or institute. You might be surprised by what you find!

Check out training registries like DReSA (Australasia) and TeSS (Europe). Bioinformatics and data skills training events from many organisations are listed in these registries. 

On demand, self-paced training

There are hundreds of online tutorials, articles, documentation guides and more that you can use to learn about bioinformatics. These lists of resources curated by Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics,  COMBINE, Melbourne Bioinformatics, Monash Data Fluency and Amanda Miotto from Griffith University will help you get started.

EMBL-EBI provides on demand, online training on popular bioinformatics topics and using bioinformatics resources like Ensembl, UniProt and more.

The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics also offers online tutorials on a variety of topics including Unix, Python, HPC and more.

The Galaxy Training Network has 100’s of free tutorials introducing a huge variety of topics and demonstrating how to analyse and interpret your data.

The Carpentries provide foundational lessons on programming and data science skills.

Live training and support 

Australian BioCommons

We offer webinars and workshops in partnership with Australia’s best universities and research institutions via our Bioinformatics Training Cooperative. All of our events are free to join. Recordings of webinars are available on our YouTube channel. Slides, handouts and exercises used during workshops are shared via Zenodo for reuse by workshop participants and trainers. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news and events.

ABACBS

Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society Inc (ABACBS) is a professional society for bioinformatics and computational biology in Australia. ABACBS hosts an annual conference including satellite symposia and workshops. It also hosts a national webinar series.

Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)

The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) enables the Australian research community and industry access to nationally significant, data intensive digital research infrastructure, platforms, skills and collections of high quality data. The ARDC runs regular tech talks and training events focused on data and digital research infrastructure. The ARDC has a variety of resources available on working with data and research software.

COMBINE

COMBINE is the student-run Australian organisation for students in computational biology, bioinformatics, and related fields. It is affiliated with ABACBS and the ISCB. COMBINE runs workshops on bioinformatics and programming and collates a list of useful resources.

International Training providers

Looking for training overseas? There are many places that offer training in bioinformatics worldwide including APBioNet (Asia), H3ABioNet (Africa), EMBL-EBI (UK/Europe), SIB (Switzerland), NeSI (New Zealand) and ELIXIR Europe.

Intersect

Intersect provides eResearch support and training to member organisations and for non-members on a fee-for-service basis. Topics covered include data management and analysis, software and programming, and computing.

ISCB

The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is a professional society for computational biologists and bioinformaticians. The ISCB hosts regular webinars and workshops for ISCB members via the ISCB academy. 

Galaxy Australia and the Galaxy Training Network

Galaxy Australia is an open, web-based platform for accessible, reproducible and transparent computational research. It enables biologists to use world-class computational data analysis tools and workflows without the need for programming experience. The Galaxy Training Network has 100’s of free tutorials and runs workshops on using Galaxy to analyse and interpret a huge variety of data. 

Melbourne Bioinformatics

Melbourne Bioinformatics provides bioinformatics support and training for researchers and students in the Parkville biomedical precinct. They run regular hands-on workshops for researchers from the University of Melbourne and its affiliates. Tutorials and protocols developed by Melbourne Bioinformatics and designed for self-directed learning are available online.

Monash Bioinformatics Platform

The Monash Bioinformatics Platform is a network of bioinformaticians who support Monash University and its affiliates. They run regular hands-on bioinformatics workshops in partnership with the Data Fluency initiative.  

National Computational Infrastructure (NCI)

National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) provides high performance storage, data and compute to researchers, industry and government. NCI provides regular data analytics, HPC and machine learning workshops and publishes NCI user guides.

Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre (Pawsey)

Pawsey is one of two tier-1 high performance computing centres in Australia.  They provide support to students and industry personnel, researchers, academics and scientists via seminars and symposia covering data, visualisation and supercomputing, as well as training, internships and workshops covering advanced computing and research and development opportunities. 

QCIF

QCIF provides support and training in data science, biostatistics and bioinformatics to researchers in QLD-based member organisations. QCIF runs practical workshops on programming, statistics, data management and bioinformatics. Subject to availability, they also welcome workshop participants from non-member organisations for a fee. 

South Australian Genomics Centre (SAGC)

SAGC supports genomics research in South Australia, nationally and internationally. The SAGC has a dedicated Bioinformatics Platform that supports users of the facility by developing advanced and customised approaches for data analysis, integration and visualisation. The SAGC organises workshops on genomics topics in South Australia.

Sydney Informatics Hub (SIH)

The Sydney Informatics Hub provides support, training, and expertise in research data management, statistics, data science, software engineering, simulation, visualisation, bioinformatics, and research computing for researchers at the University of Sydney and affiliates. SIH runs regular workshops on these topics.

UWA Centre for Applied Bioinformatics

This is a virtual centre for bioinformatics connecting researchers and bioinformaticians at UWA, Harry Perkins Institute, Telethon Kids Institute and the Marshall Centre. The centre provides bioinformatics support and training to researchers at these organisations.

Your university library or eResearch support team

Many universities offer eResearch skills training, hackyhours and drop-in sessions through their libraries, grad schools or eResearch teams. 

Communities of practice, hackyhours and drop in sessions

There are many of these around the country. They are a great way of finding like-minded people who support each other to learn and apply new skills. Here are a few examples to get you started:

Find a buddy

Who else in your department/institute/organisation is using bioinformatics? Can you team up and learn together?

Bioinformatics and HPC Community of Practice

This community of practice is hosted by the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre and supported by Australian BioCommons and ABACBS. It gives bioinformaticians using supercomputers the opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences while remaining connected around High Performance Computing (HPC) topics. Meetings, announcements and chats are hosted on a dedicated slack channel. Join the Bioinformatics HPC Community of Practice now.

Hackyhours and drop in sessions

Hackyhours and drop in sessions are often run at universities, research institutes and as public meetups. They focus on a variety of topics including coding skills (eg. R and Python), data analysis, tools and data management. A list of hackyhours is provided by AERO and they are often advertised via Twitter or Meetup.com. Check what’s on offer at your institution or university as well.

RLadies

RLadies is a network of international meetup groups that have the goal of encouraging, inspiring, and empowering the minorities currently underrepresented in the R community to achieve their programming potential, by building a collaborative global network of R leaders, mentors, learners, and developers. RLadies has groups in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. 

R user groups (RUG)

Community meetups for people using R. It's a way of bringing people together to share what they are working on and swap ideas. These are often advertised on Meetup.com

Women in HPC

Women in HPC is a network that aims to better support diversity within and across the Australian and New Zealand HPC and eResearch sectors. Women in HPC has fortnightly Zoom catch ups as a friendly, casual and safe space for community members to connect and chat. 

Women who code

Women who code is a global network supporting women in technology careers. There are networks in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne which host regular events and catch ups. A variety of resources are available for members including tutorials, articles, videos, and other educational materials.