BackgroundRecent technological advances in the area of genomic sequencing have resulted in an explosion of the amount of data being generated in the life sciences. As a result, the life sciences have become increasingly computational in nature, and bioinformatics has taken on a central role in research studies. However, basic computational skills and data stewardship are rarely taught in life science educational programs, resulting in a skills gap in many of the researchers tasked with analysing these big datasets. In a recent survey from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, over 60% of biologists expressed the need for more training while only 5% called for additional computing power. Moreover, as the ecological impact of travelling to give training and workshops is increasingly a concern, new digital solutions for scaling learning are required. Also, due to the COVID19 pandemic, many teachers are now forced to teach via video conferences with little to no preparation. Therefore, an instructors support programme to provide guidance in these situations is desperately needed.Bioinformatics & Data Analysis CompetencyThe Gallantries project aims to increase bioinformatics and core data analysis skills in the field of life sciences. In order to provide these skills as early as possible, this project focuses on MSc and PhD students. Bioinformatics is a rapidly evolving field, and the tools and concepts taught in degree-length education programs become outdated quickly. Therefore, we will create a modular curriculum, consisting of interrelated but independent modules covering the latest developments in the field. These modules can be integrated into existing Master and PhD-programmes either combined or individually. They will also be suitable for stand-alone use in workshops for researchers, answering the demand for supplemental education of later-career researchers.To reach this aim, the project partners will:1. Develop a set of four (online) training modules covering fundamental computational and data analysis skills and competencies, based around real-world scientific data analysis in the field of genomics (IO1-IO4).2. Deliver these training modules (IO1-IO4) in workshops and lessons via live-streaming sessions to multiple geographically distant satellite classrooms across Europe, applying a hybrid training methodology to ensure scalability and reusability.3. Develop a train-the-trainer program and build a community of instructors to ensure sustainability (IO5).4. Effectively engage stakeholders and disseminate project results to ensure uptake and sustainability.Participants & ImpactWith this new hybrid approach the partners expect to involve around 675 MSc and PhD students, and 225 later-career researchers over the lifetime of the project. These learners will gain the data analysis skills and competences they can apply directly in their current and future work in life sciences research. Moreover, this will enhance their employability in life science industries as well.The Train-the-Trainer (TtT) program will be based on the project partners’ experiences with hybrid training and broadcasting workshops, gained as active instructors in the international training communities of the Carpentries and Galaxy Project. This will provide new instructors across Europe with the skills necessary to broadcast their lessons and training modules. The project partners expect to involve 30 trainers from different European countries and provide them with the necessary experience to conduct hybrid training through the Gallantries approach. This will enable them to run their own hybrid training events in the future, and to help them to integrate these modules into their educational programs. The new instructors will also be able to use the Galaxy data analysis tools and apply them to improve and update their own course materials.The consortium is enhanced with associated partners from across Europe (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Serbia). These higher education institutions are interested to participate in the pilot training workshops and will contribute to the evaluation and improvement of the lesson contents. Additionally, we will engage closely with other transnational projects, most notably ELIXIR.SustainabilityAll educational materials and other project results, from raw inputs to finished outputs, will be published online and will be freely accessible under non-restrictive licenses. Interested stakeholders will be encouraged to use the results and integrate these community-maintained bioinformatics competency modules into their curricula, meeting the needs of a fast developing field. The Train-the-Trainer programme will help instructors to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. Long term hosting of the project outputs is funded with support from the German Network for Bioinformaticians (de.NBI), the Galaxy Project, and the Carpentries.

Apheleia – Integrated Cultural Landscape Management for Local and global sustainabilitySustainability became a dominant key-word at the onset of the Brundtland report and, moreover, after the Eco-92 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Yet, 25 years later, the balance could not be other than to recognize our planet stands in a more unstable and less sustainable position, despite all intentions. The Rio+20 Summit, when addressing poverty as the core issue of sustainability, called in fact for a revision of the original concept, going beyond the so-called TRB (triple bottom line, considering the environmental, social and economic dimensions). Yet, a new understanding needs to build from human understandings and cultural diversity is crucial, and a new specific framework of reference is required, to address the challenges of Rio+20 and to converge with other global initiatives, such as “Future Earth” and the proposed “International Year of Global Understanding”. The strategic partnership Apheleia aims at structuring a convergent set of tools that will foster the need for a properly Integrated (as opposed to dispersed) Cultural (i.e. human and diverse) Landscape Management (rooted in human understandings and leading towards governance through awareness and critical thinking) for Local and Global Sustainability (addressing the great global dilemmas, but also focused on individual anxieties and needs). Such a program implies a high degree of complexity to be dealt with by the academia, but also requires efficient operative tools, that render such complexity simple for non-academics and for daily lives. Apheleia (Ἀφέλεια), the spirit of simplicity in ancient Greece, stands as the leading and inspiring word for the current partnership, since rendering simple the complexity of things is an academic obligation and an urgent need to foster tangible down-the-line convergent actions.Moreover, the Apheleia project specifically aims at contributing for an European contribution towards the global challenges as they are beeing internationally designed. Europe has been the cradle for many of the best practices in terms of sustainability, including its address to science and society interaction, and it must now promote a new framework of reference, anticipated but not yet consolidated. An European contribution must, per definition, be open to other cultures, interests and perspectives, make the most of European diversity itself, and involve universities, the private sector, NGOs and local and regional public authorities, i.e., be based on a multi-stakeholders basis. At the same time, partnerships should be focused and leading to clear and tangible results.Main aims:1. To establish a solid consortium, involving academic and non-academic partners, focusing in education and best practices that for students’ applied training in transdisciplinary innovative approaches to integrated cultural landscape management. 2. To train a selection of EU students on the complex use of convergent multidisciplinary tools for cultural integrated landscape management, through theoretical teaching and collective applied training, as well as tailored made individual study and essay, all combined in a new Intensive Program on Integrated Cultural Landscape Management for Local and global sustainability, rooted both in academic knowledge and in regional authorities co-operation.3. To collect, analyze and synthetize the rich field experiences gathered by the partnership members on diverse case studies distributed worldwide in order to present practical testimonies, records and professional perspectives to the involved students.4. To involve basic disciplinary core required competences (archaeology, technology, economy, law, sociology, geography, history, urban planning, etc., permanently integrated through transversal competences on materiality, anthropology, communication, leadership and entrepreneurship.5. To produce a common lexicon + website and a series of reference publications on the topic, merging theoretical and applied knowledge.6. To pave the way for a new European Master on the topic, as a follow up of the partnership, alongside successful case studies of innovative policies.This is Apheleia (Ἀφέλεια).