@article{8613f87900234149b2442862672852dd,
title = "The history and organization of the Workshop on Population and Speciation Genomics",
abstract = "With the advent of high-throughput genome sequencing, bioinformatics training has become essential for research in evolutionary biology and related fields. However, individual research groups are often not in the position to teach students about the most up-to-date methodology in the field. To fill this gap, extended bioinformatics courses have been developed by various institutions and provide intense training over the course of two or more weeks. Here, we describe our experience with the organization of a course in one of the longest-running extended bioinformatics series of workshops, the Evomics Workshop on Population and Speciation Genomics that takes place biennially in the UNESCO world heritage town of {\v C}esk{\'y} Krumlov, Czech Republic. We list the key ingredients that make this workshop successful in our view, explain the routine for workshop organization that we have optimized over the years, and describe the most important lessons that we have learned from it. We report the results of a survey conducted among past workshop participants that quantifies measures of effective teaching and provide examples of how the workshop setting has led to the cross-fertilisation of ideas and ultimately scientific progress. We expect that our account may be useful for other groups aiming to set up their own extended bioinformatics courses.",
keywords = "Bioinformatics, Course, Education, Genomics, Workshop",
author = "Barth, {Julia M.I.} and Handley, {Scott A.} and Daniel Kintzl and Guy Leonard and Milan Malinsky and Michael Matschiner and Meyer, {Britta S.} and Walter Salzburger and Jan Stefka and Emiliano Trucchi",
note = "Funding Information: We sincerely thank the town of {\v C}esk{\'y} Krumlov, and particularly the employees of the tourist office, the Zlaty Andel Hotel, the Town Theater, the House of Prelate, and the Egon Schiele Caf{\'e} for being such formidable hosts for our workshop. We acknowledge financial support from the University of South Bohemia in {\v C}esk{\'e} Bud{\v e}jovice that allowed us to lower workshop fees for participants. JMIB received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie grant agreement No. 891088. We would also like to express our gratitude to the key figures responsible for the establishment of Evomics workshops in Europe: Michael Cummings, Naiara Rodr{\'i}guez-Ezpeleta, David Swofford, and Adam Bazinet. Without them, the WPSG would never have existed. Finally, we greatly thank all faculty members, teachings assistants, and participants who ever joined a WPSG edition (and particularly those participants who answered our survey) for making these workshops the unique events that they are. Funding Information: We sincerely thank the town of {\v C}esk{\'y} Krumlov, and particularly the employees of the tourist office, the Zlaty Andel Hotel, the Town Theater, the House of Prelate, and the Egon Schiele Caf{\'e} for being such formidable hosts for our workshop. We acknowledge financial support from the University of South Bohemia in {\v C}esk{\'e} Bud{\v e}jovice that allowed us to lower workshop fees for participants. JMIB received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie grant agreement No. 891088. We would also like to express our gratitude to the key figures responsible for the establishment of Evomics workshops in Europe: Michael Cummings, Naiara Rodr{\'i}guez-Ezpeleta, David Swofford, and Adam Bazinet. Without them, the WPSG would never have existed. Finally, we greatly thank all faculty members, teachings assistants, and participants who ever joined a WPSG edition (and particularly those participants who answered our survey) for making these workshops the unique events that they are. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023, The Author(s).",
year = "2023",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1186/s12052-023-00182-w",
language = "English",
volume = "16",
journal = "Evolution: Education and Outreach",
issn = "1936-6426",
number = "1",
}