The MetaFluidics consortium has always been keen on sharing knowledge generated during the project lifetime with a wide variety of stakeholders, including science students, fellow researchers and scientists.
The project has therefore organised and taken part in several summer schools and workshops on topics related to the partners’ expertise and particularly aimed at students at the late undergraduate or graduate level.
Bioinformatics Workshops for Experimentalists (QIAGEN) (Aarhus, Denmark – 2016 & 2017)
The first Bioinformatics workshop for experimentalists was organised by partner QIAGEN in Aarhus from Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd November 2016. The 14 participants from MetaFluidics partner institutions were trained on the effective use of the central server for sharing data within the consortium and performing data analysis tasks with user-friendly bioinformatic tools through a mixture of lectures, tutorials and hands-on experiments in an interactive setting.
The second MetaFluidics bioinformatics workshop (hackathon) was
held in Aarhus in September 2017 with 11 participants and 1 external contributor. This advanced workshop focused on obtaining an overview of state-of-the-art tools in metagenomic NGS data analysis. The main objective was to provide an interactive forum open to both consortium members and associated bioinformaticians. The participants
identified main bottlenecks, collected suggestions for alternative implementations to currently used methods and discussed possible ideas for further improvements.
The EMBL Practical Course “Microbial Metagenomics: a 360º Approach” (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany – 2017, 2018 & 2019)
The EMBO Practical Course “Microbial Metagenomics: a 360º Approach” is an annual course co-organised by José Eduardo González-Pastor (CSIC-INTA) and aimed at advanced PhD students and post-doctoral researchers
who are doing or planning to start research in the field of metagenomics. The course provides a general background to metagenomics through lectures and practical sessions. Throughout the course, around 20 participants are trained by 13 speakers and 3 trainers in the construction of metagenomic libraries and DNA sequencing through a combination of lectures, poster presentations, discussion rounds, quizzes and group work. The table below provides an orverview of the lectures and practicals specifically organised by MetaFluidics partners José Eduardo González-Pastor (CSIC) and Gabrielle Potocki-Veronese (INSAT) in the 2018 edition of the EMBL course.
Practical course “Technical approaches to the study of extremophiles”, organised by partners UAM, UA and the Spanish Network for Extremophiles (University of Alicante, June 2017)
Through lectures and lab sessions, the course covered aspects such as thermophilic and halophilic lab models and their genetic manipulation. It was taught by more than 15 experts in the study of extremophiles and covered diverse aspects of the many technical challenges posed by the study of these microbes. In addition, the course included plenary talks on metaproteomics, the terrestrial Mars analogue Rio Tinto and the discovery of CRISPR systems, one of the hallmarks of
extremophilic research.
Summer School on KET Biotechnology, co-organised with Horizon 2020 projects CarbaZymes and Robox (Certosa di Pontignano, Italy, October 2017)
On October 3rd -6th 2017, MetaFluidics partners participated in the Summer School on KET Biotechnology, organised together with Horizon 2020 projects CarbaZymes and Robox. A. Hidalgo gave two lectures on topics related to MetaFluidics.
- Link to press release on Robox website: https://h2020robox.eu/latest-news/press-release-from-summer-school/
Developing the innovation spirit of academic partners (Alicante, October 24 2019)
During the General Assembly meeting in Alicante (ES) in October 2019, Dr. Liisa Van Vliet (DT) organised a workshop aimed at consortium members, as well as late undergraduate or graduate level from the University of Alicante. The participants were trained to develop their innovation spirit thanks to background Innovation theory, tools and a list of key elements to think about for commercialisation. The workshop covered a range of topics including Innovation, Forms of IP, Clients and Markets, Competition, etc. Specific examples of various Business Models in the biotechnology industry were provided, in line with the project topics. The workshop gathered approximately 40 people.
Gender Equity Workshop (Alicante, October 25 2019)
During the General Assembly meeting in Alicante (ES) in October 2019, Dr. Gabrielle Potocki-Veronese (INSAT), organised a workshop entitled “Gender equity, Diversity and career perspectives”. It was aimed at consortium members, as well as late undergraduate or graduate level from the University of Alicante. The workshop presented the results of a survey about gender equity in the MetaFluidics consortium and organisations, and discussed possible actions to support women’s success in research. The workshop gathered approximately 40 people.
