The Peer Prize for Bioinformatics is open
Doing science is collaborative by nature. We pursue ideas today solely on the basis of collective knowledge that has come before us and those scientists who were bold enough to pursue them. Yet as the volume of scientific output doubles every 9 years it is getting very difficult to synthesize new research, but most importantly to learn & celebrate the most exciting new discoveries emerging in each field.
I can read about new high-profile research in Science, Nature, New Scientist or Popular Science, but often this isn’t the most exciting or important to a field as a whole. So last year we introduced the concept of a ‘Peer Prize’ which gives voice to researchers collectively on projects & discoveries most important to them.
Bioinformatics (sometimes called computational biology) is one of those multi-disciplinary fields that has gone through an explosion since the mapping of the human genome. New technologies have emerged to exponentially grow the research & discoveries to fundamentally progress human health.
In association with the Centre for Systems Genomics at the University of Melbourne, The Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University & Melbourne Bioinformatics, we are very excited to launch the first global ‘Peer Prize’ in the field of Bioinformatics. This is where researchers collectively (ie ‘The Academy’) learn about the latest research across the field & then vote on the latest research they find most interesting or important.
The objective is to accelerate wider knowledge exchange & multi-disciplinary collaboration with the latest bioinformatics research from around the world, while celebrating the most exciting new discoveries made in the field as voted by peers.
The inaugural prize is open to researchers who have published a pre-print ( eg. in bioArxiv or other repositories) or e-print in traditional bioinformatics journals between January 1 and March 31, 2017. We seek authors to provide a wider summary that allows a broader audience to understand their work, while video summaries are even better at showcasing your research.
Applications close soon and there are US$2k in prizes along with a student prize. You can learn more here: https://the-bioinformatics-peer-prize.thinkable.org/
Thanks.
Ben, CSO
