Bioinformatics in Norden

Meeting was held in conjunction with the Bioinformatics '99 conference, Saturday the 17th of April 14.00-15.00 at the conference venue - Star Hotel in Lund.

Some 50-100 people attended

Some notes taken by Bo Servenius - during the general assembly and during staturory meeting with the interim board during the dinner the same day:

• Membership of the society - all Scandinavian countries
 
• Society should be open for membership of everyone active or interested in bioinformatics within any of the Nordic countries. It was also suggested that contacts should be taken with the Baltic states and Poland to investigate their eventual interest.
• Name for the society
 
• Was suggested that the name should be Bioinformatics (Bioinformaticians - might be better) in Norden (Nordic Countries?) - (Should be checked out the uniqueness of the name and possible DNS www.bin.org - well it seems to be taken already.) Maybe sbin would be better - Society for Bioinformaticians in Norden
• Charter for the society, finances etc
 
• Charter was discussed. Should be checked out what legal requirements there are to be able to have an own giroaccount etc. Aim should be to have an simpe and open charter as is possible. Same way the finances should be as simple as is possible. Individual membership fees should be avoided as that create unnecessary buraucracy.
• Financing of the internal activities could be through, revenues from the conferences, grants from different agencies etc - as Nordiska Rådet, and through corporate sponsorships from commercial companies with interest in bioinformatics.
• Charter that could be applicable are for instance: SFBM Svensk förening för biokemi och molekylärbiologi - charter (stadgar) short - but are they enough. SSI Scandinavian Society for Immunology.
• Bengt Persson will take care of any economical transaction needed through the accounts established for the Bioinformatics '99 conference.
• Relations to The International Society for Computational Biology (ICSB) (Creating a Professional Society for Bioinformatics - The International Society for Computational Biology)
 
• were discussed - contacts will be taken. (Who should be contacted by  who?)
• Relations to EMBnet
• The EMBnet activities have been a fruitful way of communication for bioinformaticians at european as well as at natioinal level. Future interactions are greatly welcome.
• The swedish EMBnet node in Uppsala has offered support for any infrastructure regarding emaillist, webserver etc needed.
• Election of an interim board -(at least one from each country). Board should if possible have  representation from both corporate interests and academic interest in all Nordic countries. The following people were appointed to the interim board and at a following meeting divided responsibliities as follows
 
• Sweden
 
• Bo Servenius, bo.servenius@draco.se.astra.com

Astra Draco Bioinformatics, Lund, chairman
• Bengt Persson, KI, cashier, bpn@mbb.ki.se
• Denmark
 
• David Ussery, CBS, chariman for organizing committee for next years meeting
• Henrik Vissing, Novo Nordisk
• Norway
 
• Finn Drablos, finn.drablos@unimed.sintef.no

SINTEF Unimed, MR Centre, http://www.sintef.no/
• Inge Jonassen
• Finland
 
• Christophe Roos, Christophe.Roos@Helsinki.FI

CSC bioinfo support at Viikki Biocenter, http://www.csc.fi/molbio/bioverkko/bioverkko.html
• Marc Johnson
• Iceland
 
• open position
• Discussions about Activities for the society
 
• Annual/semiannual meetings - suggestions for a "Bioinformatics 2000" meeting venue.
 
• The success of this years meeting was very articulated. There is a strong interest to follow up with a yearly meeting.
• Sören Brunak and coworkers offered to organize next years meeting.
 
• Organizing committee: Sören Brunak, David Ussery - some more from Denmark
• Program committee: Gunnar von Heijne, Sören Brunak, Anders Landsner, Inge Johanssen, Christophe Roos, Bengt Persson.
• Some ideas for the future meetings
 
• more time for student presentations.
• meeting should be three days (two nights) with eventual workshops etc preceeding the conference.
• Workshops, education etc
 
• Was suggested by Sören Brunak that there should be an attempt to organize some workshop, tutorial activity etc in conjunction with the yearly conferense. This could also be an argument when trying to raise money for the conference.
• Journal subscriptions
 
• Rebated subscriptions for the members should be investigated.
• Email list
 
• As soon as is possible there should be an emaillist established for the society. This should be used for announcements for the societey and all other types of interactions that the members could benifit from. This maillist should not be allowed for nonmemembers to use without the written consent from the board.
• Website
 
• A website should be established - if  possible with its own URL. Suggestion www.sbin.org. Suggestions for its content
 
• Membership registry - cgi form for automatic registration of memberships - if possible use the mechanisms used for the conferensce registration - check out with Arne.
• Membership registry could be complemented by notes about specific expertise that the memers have
• Abstracts from the meetings could be published on the webserver.
•  
• Other activities?

Links of interest

• Nordiska Rådet
• NorFa - money to apply - research education - ATTN DeadLine May 1st.