This 2-day Retreat, hosted by the Coordinator INESC-ID in Olissippo Oriente Hotel, brought together – for the first time – Early Stage Researchers, Postdocs and PIs from the three partners of the OLISSIPO Consortium (Inria, EMBL and ETH Zürich).

The agenda of this event can be found here.

After the opening session, ESRs presented Flash Talks on their ongoing work:

David Dreifuss, ESR | ETH Zürich
Fritz Bayer, ESR | ETH Zürich
Hosna Baniadam, ESR | EMBL
Leonardo Alexandre, ESR | INESC-ID
João Aparício, ESR | INESC-ID
Rita Baião, ESR | INESC-ID
Mónica de Mendonça Silva, ESR | INESC-ID
Thomas Naake, Postdoc | EMBL

There was time for debating “Computational Biology: bridging academic education and data science applications for clinical and biotechnology research” in a hybrid session streaming to specific departments of the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) Community. Prof. Rogério Colaço, president of IST, and Prof. Inês Lynce, president of INESC-ID, were present in this special session.

During one hour and a half, we explored several critical aspects associated with Computational Biology, covering academic education (Prof. Niko Beerenwinkel, ETH), applications to clinical research (Doctor Luís Costa, iMM/CHLN), and translational bioinformatics for the biotechnology industry (Dr Simão Soares, SilicoLife).

The session included a round-table, with the participation of the audience, focused on national strategies and the future of this discipline, opportunities and challenges in Portugal.

Prof. Jonas Almeida, a member of the OLISSIPO Scientific Advisory Board, participated in the discussion.

On this first day, parallel sessions allowed a scientific and management meeting between the Advisory Board to discuss some aspects of the project, while ESRs had time for networking and teamwork.

The day ended with Prof. Susan Holmes, a Scientific Advisory Board member, talking with the ESRs about career development.

On the second day, there was time to discuss future projects/collaborations, more teamwork and a workshop on Science Communication & Outreach given by Prof. Ana Sanchez (ITQB-UNL).

We want to thank all participants from INESC-ID, EMBL, Inria and ETH Zürich and the speakers who shared their knowledge with us.

We are looking forward to the next meeting!