Peer review bioinformatics support track (WABI)

The Peer Review Bioinformatics Support track (a.k.a. WABI) at NBIS/SciLifeLab strives to enable excellent and Data-Driven Life Science, by ensuring that peer-reviewed research projects have access to advanced bioinformatics and data science competence. This support has been enabled by the SciLifeLab & Wallenberg Data Driven Life Science Program and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. The idea is simple: A senior bioinformatician will work in your project 500 hours for free! Hands-on involvement by the applying research group is required to ensure efficient knowledge transfer.

NEW! As of 2023, this support track is also open to projects involving Cryo-EM and Cryo-ET applications, see below.

NB! The deadline for the next peer review application round is stated on the application page (click the Go to application form button at the bottom of this page).

Our staff

The bioinformatics support staff has internationally competitive expert knowledge in large-scale molecular data analyses and data science. The staff are experts in areas such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenetics, metagenomics, metabolomicsa and Cryo-EM/structural biology, including single-cell omics analyses, multi-omics integration, and AI/Machine Learning applications. Our joint experience spans across many types of organisms and include projects from both medical, cell biology, biodiversity and evolutionary research, comprising all the four Research Areas of the SciLifeLab & Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS). The staff comprise advanced applied bioinformaticians, many who have also experience in developing novel bioinformatics tools and methods. The coding skills ranges from experienced scripting to full software development, and our staff strongly promote and apply Reproducible Research, Open Science and FAIR data handling. All staff are devoted full-time to bioinformatics support, and are not driving their own research careers.

The support model

The framework of the support model is:

• Any research group at a Swedish university can apply for support. Applications are submitted in open calls three times per year (Jan/May/Oct), and are selected based on scientific peer review by a national evaluation committee.

• Granted applications will be offered help with bioinformatics data analyses by experienced bioinformaticians for a maximum of 500 h effective time. Extensions and multiple project applications are possible, but the same research group (PI) can only be granted a maximum of 1000 h effective time over a period of two calendar years.

• At least one member of the research group must be assigned to work hands-on with the data analysis alongside the NBIS Support staff to ensure transfer of know-how.

• The support is free of charge.

The exact amount of time granted will be decided on a case-by-case basis. The NBIS Support staff will be fully integrated members of the research project during the time of the support, taking part in the scientific discussions and participating as co-authors of manuscripts according to normal contribution criteria. All work and analyses done will be fully available to the research group, including scripts and programs. Analysis tools and technical knowledge gained during the project will be made immediately public (ie before publication) unless otherwise agreed upon.

Application criteria

Successful applications should fulfill the following main criteria

• Scientific quality A scientific advisory board with national delegates will score the scientific quality of the project.

• Feasibility The NBIS Support management will evaluate if the support team has the technical expertise needed to contribute to the project.

• Involvement The applying party must assign at least one scientist from their group to take part in the bioinformatics work to ensure efficient knowledge transfer and longevity of the project beyond the time of the granted support.

• Data availability Data may be generated specifically for this project, or collected from public repositories or by collaborative consortium efforts or alike. For logistic reasons, priority will be given to projects with at least some of the data already available for analysis.

It is advantageous but not strictly required, that the scientist(s) assigned from the applicant’s side have some experience in working in a Unix/Linux environment and/or has some previous experience in scripting. Previous knowledge in bioinformatics is not a factor in the evaluation process.

NEW! Cryo-EM/structural biology support

As of 2023, NBIS in close collaboration with the SciLifeLab Cryo-EM units will also offer computational expertise to support structural biology projects involving Cryo-EM and Cryo-ET data (potentially combined with other structural biology and structure prediction methods). Note that for these applications, there is a separate application form found at the regular application page (see link below). The conditions are the same as above, although we will initially apply a maximum time allocation of 300 h for these projects.

How to apply

Applications can be submitted by filling out the application form (see link below). Applications will be reviewed 3 times a year. Coming deadlines can be found at the application submission form. Projects not granted support, or projects with previous support granted but in need of further assistance, are welcome to re-apply. Note! Only 1 application per principal investigator/group leader per application round is allowed in these calls.

Questions

For further questions, please contact bioinformatics_wabi@scilifelab.se