VEME2023

27th International Bioinformatics Workshop on Virus Evolution and Molecular Epidemiology (VEME)

Stellenbosch, South Africa

August 20 – 25, 2023

Dear colleague, The 27th International Workshop on Virus Evolution and Molecular Epidemiology (VEME2023) will be organized by the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI – https://ceri.org.za/) in Stellenbosch, Cape Town during August 20–25, 2023. The workshop comprises 6 full days of theoretical lectures, practical sessions and keynote presentations. This workshop gathers top researchers from across the world, who will provide in-depth understanding of both practical and theoretical concepts of bioinformatics. Participants will be equipped to address bioinformatics questions and offer insight to peers and society, advancing the field and improving public health. The programme comprises four key modules: The “Phylogenetic Inference” module offers theoretical background and hands-on experience in phylogenetic analysis for those who have little or no prior expertise in sequence analysis. The “Evolutionary Hypothesis Testing” module targets participants who are familiar with alignments and phylogenetic trees and would like to extend their expertise to likelihood and Bayesian inference in phylogenetics, coalescent and phylogeographic analyses (‘phylodynamics’). The “NGS Analysis” module covers the analysis of Next Generation Sequencing data of viruses and metagenomics. The “From Trees to Public Health Policy” module aims to help participants understand how surveillance, public health decision-making, and epidemic control are linked to each other, and what needs to improve to be better prepared for epidemics and pandemics. This module runs over the entire five days of the workshop. Practical sessions in these modules will involve software such as, PHYML, MEGA, PAML, HYPHY, IQ-Tree, BEAST, SpreaD3, UGENE, MEGAN, RAxML, Clusterpicker, BEAST2, RDP4, FigTree, Genome Detective, among others. Participants are requested to bring their own data set to work on during practical sessions and to refer to The Phylogenetic Handbook if they are seeking basic guidance. The abstract and application deadline is 30 April 2023. Selections of participants will be made by the first week after the deadline. The registration fee of $700 covers attendance, coffee breaks and lunch. In each 4-day module, participation is limited to 30 scientists and is dependent on a selection procedure based on the submitted abstract and statement of motivation. Thanks to the financial support from the WHO / Rockefeller Foundation /Abbott Diagnostics, a limited number of scholarships are available for scientists who experience difficulties to attend because of financial reasons.  These scholarships will cover travel, accommodation and registration fees. Selection criteria (in order of importance):
    1. Quality of the abstract: abstracts will be reviewed, and priority will be given to applicants who are first author on the abstract.
    1. Letter of motivation: how urgent/important is your need for training?
    1. Each module is preferably restricted to 1 participant from the same lab.
    1. We strive for participation from diverse countries.
Grant criteria for full attendance coverage (in order of importance):
    1. Priority to countries with limited resources.
    1. Ranking according to the abstract quality.
Additional information and application forms are available on our website: http://veme.climade.health/application/. We are confident that this course will meet the needs of many molecular virologists and epidemiologists and hope we can assist you in your search for training in Bioinformatics methods