Open Bioinformatics Foundation Event Fellowships Review (Previously Travel fellowship)

[kipkurui]

Summary

On 28 January, Malvika, Caleb and Hilya discussed the current status of event fellowship and agreed that there is an opportunity to enhance how we deal with the applications, as well as communities that we can reach out to beyond the current scope. Based on our discussion, Malvika (current chair of Event Fellowship) proposed to co-chair the fellowship porgramme together with Hilya and Caleb. Caleb suggested to review the data from the last applicants and measures we can take to stengthen the quality. Hilya offered to help with the outreach effort to reach to wider bioinformatics communty.

Action points

The fellowship hasn't been getting quality applications, maybe because we haven't reached those who need this application, or maybe we reached, but they haven't written this kind of application and would require support. To understand this, we would like to:

• [ ] Review the fellowship documents
• [ ] Review previous applications to understand the needs
• [ ] Update the fellowship documents with the co-chairs

[peterjc]

i.e. the award to individuals which we now call the "Open Bioinformatics Foundation Event Fellowships", but was originally described as a travel fellowship:

https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/blob/master/Travel_fellowships.md

[malvikasharan]

Related announcements from the Open Bioinformatics Foundation - Event Fellowship programme: :mega:

• :tada: Please join me in welcoming @Caleb and @Hilyatuz Zahroh as the co-chairs of the OBF Event Fellowship Programme. Please read what we plan to work on in coming months: https://www.open-bio.org/2022/02/07/obf-event-fellowship-update/ <-- please add your thoughts for us to consider. :raised_hands:
  • 🥇 Sharing 2021 round-up: we awarded OBF Event Fellowship to 3 members (some OLS members) and in collaboration with BOSC organisers, awarded BOSC_OBF Event Fund to 7 members. Congratulation to everyone and thanks to many of them who shared blog post capturing their experience from the conferences they attended: https://www.open-bio.org/2022/02/07/obf-event-fellowship-update/
• :writing_hand: Finally, our call for application for the OBF Event Fellowship programme has opened - deadline is 1 April. Read some notes from us to maximise your chance to be funded . https://www.open-bio.org/2022/02/07/obf-event-fellowship-2022-round1/ <-- Please share this in your community and with those who can take advantage of this funding support. Happy to chat more if you would like to get more information to help you draft your application.