The Development of a Sustainable Bioinformatics Training Environment Within the H3Africa Bioinformatics Network (H3ABioNet)

Abstract

Bioinformatics training programs have been developed independently around the world based on the perceived needs of the local and global academic communities. The field of bioinformatics is complicated by the need to train audiences from diverse backgrounds in a variety of topics to various levels of competencies. While there have been several attempts to develop standardised approaches to provide bioinformatics training globally, the challenges encountered in resource limited settings hinder the adaptation of these global approaches. H3ABioNet, a Pan-African Bioinformatics Network with 27 nodes in 16 African countries, has realised that there is no single simple solution to this challenge and has rather, over the years, evolved and adapted training approaches to create a sustainable training environment, with several components that allow for the successful dissemination of bioinformatics knowledge to diverse audiences. This has been achieved through the implementation of a combination of training modalities and sharing of high quality training material and experiences. The results highlight the success of implementing this multi-pronged approach to training, to reach audiences from different backgrounds and provide training in a variety of different areas of expertise. While face-to-face training was initially required and successful, the mixed-model teaching approach allowed for an increased reach, providing training in advanced analysis topics to reach large audiences across the continent with minimal teaching resources. The transition to hackathons provided an environment to allow the progression of skills, once basic skills had been developed, together with the development of real-world solutions to bioinformatics problems. Ensuring our training materials are FAIR, and through synergistic collaborations with global training partners, the reach of our training materials extends beyond H3ABioNet. Coupled with the opportunity to develop additional career building soft skills, such as scientific communication, H3ABioNet has created a flexible, sustainable and high quality bioinformatics training environment that has successfully been implemented to train several highly skilled African bioinformaticians on the continent.