ECCB 2010 will feature one-day tutorial sessions on Sunday, September 26, 2010.

The purpose of the tutorial program is to provide participants with lectures and instruction covering  topics relevant to the bioinformatics field. It offers participants an opportunity to learn about new areas of bioinformatics research, to get an introduction to important established topics, or to develop advanced skills in areas about which they are already familiar. Lectures in a tutorial are typically presented by one or two speakers.

This call is an invitation for scientists and professionals working in the fields of bioinformatics and computational biology to submit proposals for high quality tutorials for ECCB10. Tutorials are scheduled to be eight hours long, from 9:00 to 17:00, with two half-hour coffee breaks and a one-hour lunch break.

Proposal Submission

Proposals for tutorials should be submitted March 26, 2010. Tutorial submissions should not exceed a maximum of 4 pages, and must include a detailed description of what will be taught. Proposals should contain the following information:

• A brief description of the instructor(s) indicating the relevant qualifications and teaching experience.
• Based on feedback received from earlier years, please note that in general graduate students are not permitted to participate as instructors.
• Each tutorial should have a maximum of two presenters.
• Title and expected goals, objectives and motivation of the tutorial
• Tutorial level: Introductory, Intermediate or Advanced.
• Intended audience: it should be clearly and precisely indicated to whom the tutorial is aimed and at which level it would be taught with respect to the different underlying scientific fields. In particular if any background (biology, algorithmics, statistics, etc) is expected, this should be very precisely described.
• Detailed outline of the presentation. Please adhere to the page limit, but provide sufficient information for a thorough evaluation to be possible

Acceptance Criteria

All submissions will be evaluated by a committee, which will consider the following criteria:

• Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to ECCB10 attendees
• Completeness, clarity, and quality of the tutorial proposal and materials
• Expertise and experience of the presenters in the proposed topic
• Expertise and experience of the presenters in delivering a successful educational experience
• Effectiveness of the proposed presentation approach.

Tutorials should provide perspective on a general area of bioinformatics. The tutorials should not focus in the lecturers' own work. Tutorial attendees often consider the reputation and standing of the presenters as one of their criteria for choosing particular sessions. It is therefore expected that the presenters listed on the submitted proposal will attend the conference to present their tutorials.

Logistics

The conference will provide a PC and LCD projector for each workshop and tutorial. Speakers may load files onto the PC using CDs or disks-on-key (USB flash memory disks); they may also hook up their own PCs or Macs to the projector.

Organizers will be responsible for ensuring that the material they submit for CDs and photocopying may be legally used, and that appropriate copyright permissions have been arranged. Organizers are expected to submit a detailed outline of the tutorial's content, to assist attendees in following the presentations. They should also provide PowerPoint presentations and possibly reference material in PDF format for inclusion on a CD that will be given to each tutorial participant. In addition, the conference will  prepare photocopied handouts of up to 50 pages for each tutorial participant.

Each tutorial will be provided with a €400 honorarium for lecturers (per tutorial, not per speaker), and free tutorial registration for up to two lecturers (ECCB10 full conference registration not included and must be registered and paid separately by team members planning to attend the main conference). The conference reserves the right to cancel a scheduled tutorial if registration a month before the conference is not at least 15 participants.

The tutorial registration fee will be of  €100 and was calculated considering: room, coffee breaks, lunch, CD, handouts and AV costs.

How to submit?

Please save proposals in Acrobat (.pdf) format. Name the file using the family name of the first organizer (i.e., John Doe’s proposal should be in a file named doe.pdf). Send proposals to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Key Dates

• Workshop and tutorial submission deadline - March 26, 2010
• Workshop and tutorial acceptance notification - April 23, 2010
• Workshop and tutorial day - September 26, 2010

Tutorial handouts

The tutorial presenters agree to provide participants with teaching materials that include:

• A detailed outline of the presentation and explanatory text, which will be a document equivalent to the oral component of the tutorial, in a standard template.
• Copies of the slides, in Powerpoint or PDF format.

Copies of relevant articles/book chapters published by the tutors may be provided as Supplementary Information but cannot replace the text material of the handout. Presenters will have to obtain copyright permission from their publishers, as required.

Copyright

Lecturers will grant copyright to tutorial materials to the ECCB10 for a period to extend from acceptance through December 2011, and they agree that their materials may be made available for sale by the conference to ECCB10 participants.