COMBINE 2010

Scottish Bioinformatics Forum, Edinburgh, Scotland
Oct. 6–09, 2010

In 2010, we are inaugurating a new, broader series of meetings to replace, among other events, the SBML and SBGN Fora. The new meetings are a recognition of the fact that there are multiple allied standardization efforts that should work together towards smooth interoperability. Moreover, we believe a joined meeting makes good economic sense: compared to multiple separate workshops, they reduce the overall number of meetings, travel, and money spent. To reflect this broad scope, we are calling the new workshop series COMBINE:

The dates and location have been set: October 6–9, 2010, immediately before ICSB 2010, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The final day of COMBINE (October 9, 2010) will also be a special event to mark the 10th anniversary of SBML.

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

Agenda

The activities at COMBINE meetings will be similar to typical workshops, with oral and poster presentations, break-out discussions, and more.

The meeting will feature sessions about the following efforts: BioPAX, CellML, SBGN, SBML and SED-ML. In addition, sessions will be dedicated to interconversion (how to generate one format from another) and interoperability (i.e. how to make the formats work together).

The afternoon of October 9 will be dedicated to a scientific meeting in celebration of the 10th anniversary of SBML.

A more detailed agenda will be announced later.

Location

The meeting will be held in the Informatics Forum building at the University of Edinburgh. This is a new center for innovation and interaction—ideally suited to the goals of COMBINE. The venue is located in the centre of the University's main campus. The address is as follows:

Informatics Forum
University of Edinburgh
10 Crichton Street
Edinburgh, EH8 9AB
Scotland, United Kingdom

We are scheduled to use two rooms: G07a for the days of October 6–9, and rooms G07+G07a for October 10, 2010.

Transportation

(Forthcoming.)

Accommodations

For the SBML and SBGN forums, contrary to the "hackathons", we did not systematically support the accommodation of attendees. We will adopt the same policy for COMBINE 2010. Our funding streams are just not sufficient to provide a financial support of that magnitude, despite help from the organisations mentioned at the bottom of this page. Because COMBINE is a satellite of the ICSB 2010, we encourage people to extend their booking. The ICSB provides a list of suggested hotels.

Other notes

Poster details

COMBINE will offer the opportunity for attendees to display posters. This is a means for people to inform each other about their software and other projects in a setting that offers the opportunity for interaction and in-depth discussion.

(More details about poster dimensions and other aspects will be provided later.)

Electrical supply

Type G Plug

If you are traveling from outside of the United Kingdom, be sure to bring an appropriate power plug converter for your laptop and all other electrical devices you're bringing. The domestic electric system in the UK uses a frighteningly high 230 volts at 50 Hz. The plug type is depicted at left.

You may be able to find an appropriate converter once you get to Edinburgh, but it's best not to count on it, and to bring your own before you leave your home country.

Weather

While Edinburgh is a wonderful city in many ways, it is unfortunately not known for beautiful weather. In October, the weather is likely to be somewhat rainy and on the cold side. The widget on the right shows the current weather in Edinburgh.

Funding Acknowledgments

Support for COMBINE 2010 is being provided by the following organizations:

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

NIH/NIGMS

ENFIN

Contacts