The demand for biomedical data scientists within and outside Europe is projected to grow 34% from 2014 to 2024, with bioinformaticians and biostatisticians as two of the highly demanded professions. This implies the need for proper education. While in the US and Western Europe there are already available academic programs at the Bachelor and Master levels that offer an adequate education in bioinformatics and biostatistics applied in life sciences, in Eastern and Central Europe there are unmet educational needs in this respect. Hence, the aim of the project is to support a change in the landscape related to the availability of well trained bioinformaticians and biostatisticians.This will be achieved by the following activities: - establishing a network of academics from three partner institutions from the Eastern, Central, and Western Europe, adequately positioned and capable of preparing educational programs aimed at training biostatisticians and applied bioinformaticians - exchange of expertise and best practices between the partner institutions - creating modular courses (Intellectual Output 1) that can be used in educational programs at master level - developing the corresponding e-learning materials (Intellectual Output 2) and their implementation allowing for their immediate use - investigation and creation of a roadmap of the legal framework (Intellectual Output 3) necessary for organization of transnational educational programs in biostatistics and/or bioinformatics applied in life sciences that will facilitate training in these domains. The expected results are: - increased educational potential of the partner institutions in the domain of bioinformatics and biostatistics applied in life sciences - creation of novel courses in the domain of bioinformatics and biostatistics applied in life sciences at the partner institutions - establishing foundation for future educational initiatives such as joint programs, student exchange schemes, etc. in bioinformatics and biostatistics applied in life sciences - collaborative ties between the partners strengthened organizationally, through the creation of common rules and practices in the area of communication and partnership. The partners will share knowledge, experience and good practices in the areas of research/education and administration, at the institutional and personal levels, which may in the future lead to other common endeavors. Additionally, the partner universities will engage in international partnership projects in which mainly activities will be connected with implementing new study programs or modifying the existing ones, enabling academic staff to do internship/training practices or any other initiatives aimed at internationalization of the academic community. The direct beneficiaries of the project will be the academic staff and scientists of the partner universities, and also their master students pursuing a career as bioinformaticians and biostatisticians. The groups indirectly benefiting from the project will include staff/physicians at university hospitals, scientific organizations and institutions collaborating with the partner universities, visiting scientists, local agencies responsible for management and development of science and education at the systemic level, universities from other countries looking for a collaboration in student/researcher/teacher exchange, and society in general including patients served by universities/hospitals.
Firstly, we wanted to achieve the following general objectives by implementing the project: establish a network of academics from three partner institutions from the Eastern, Central, and Western Europe, adequately positioned and capable of preparing educational programs aimed at training biostatisticians and applied bioinformaticians, exchanging the knowledge, experience, expertise and best practices between the partner institutions in the areas of research/education and administration. Secondly, we wanted to achieve the following tangible objectives by implementing the project: create modular courses (IO1) that can be used in educational programs at the Master's and Bachelor's level develop and implement the corresponding e-learning materials (IO2) to allow for their immediate use. Finally, the overarching goals of the project, stemming from the abovementioned objectives were the following: the increased educational potential of the partner institutions in the domain of bioinformatics and biostatistics applied in life sciences, strengthening collaborative ties between the partners: establishing a foundation for future educational initiatives such as joint programs and student exchange schemes.
In BECOMING we aimed at Educating Experts of the Future: Developing Bioinformatics and Biostatistics competencies of European Biomedical Students. We wanted to address the lack of well trained biostatisticians and bioinformaticians and support a change in the landscape related to the availability of well trained bioinformaticians and biostatisticians. Hence, the demand for biomedical data scientists within and outside Europe was projected to grow 34% from 2014 to 2024, with bioinformaticians and biostatisticians as two of the highly demanded professions. Therefore, a basic understanding of statistics was necessary not just at the introductory level but also at the advanced level. While in the US and the Western Europe there were already available academic programs at the Bachelor and Master levels that offer an adequate education in bioinformatics and biostatistics applied in life sciences, in the Eastern and Central Europe there were unmet educational needs in biostatistics and bioinformatics applied in life science. In conclusion, the main aim of BECOMING was to educate bioinformaticians and biostatisticians and the main need behind that was lack of those specialists on the job market, especially in Eastern and Central Europe.