Call for the ECCB 2026 Tutorials & Workshops

The ECCB 2026 Tutorials & Workshops Committee invites proposals for on-site tutorials and workshops, taking place on Thursday 3 September 2026. These sessions are intended to complement the scientific programme by providing opportunities for focused, in-depth exploration of timely topics, as well as training in emerging methods and tools relevant to computational biology, bioinformatics, and related disciplines.

The conference programme will be structured around five core scientific areas, each representing a major domain of research.

For the selected proposals, up to two speakers or organizers will have a free pass to attend their session and the ECCB conference. The organizers or speakers who receive free passes must register for their session. Organizers and speakers are responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs.

Tutorials

Tutorials serve an educational purpose, aiming to build knowledge and provide hands-on training in cutting-edge topics relevant to computational biology and bioinformatics. They offer participants a balanced perspective on a field of research, combining theoretical foundations with practical experience.

Topics may include introductions to established areas, emerging research fields, or advanced methods (E.g., data analysis, data visualization for bioinformatics, AI and Machine Learning for bioinformatics, workflow, software optimization, bioinformatics, best practices). Tutorials should not focus solely on the presenters’ own research or software, unless balanced with other tools in the same domain. Sessions on widely used bioinformatics tools are welcome.

Each tutorial should include interactive components such as hands-on exercises or demonstrations. 

Sessions taking place on Thursday 3 September will be scheduled as:

  • Full-day sessions (7 hours in total: 9:00-17:30, including two 15-minute breaks and a 1-hour lunch), or
  • Half-day sessions (3.5 hours in total: morning 9:00-12:45 or afternoon 13:45-17:30, including one 15-minute break).

Workshops

Workshops are designed to be highly interactive, fostering discussion, idea exchange, and practical engagement on focused or emerging topics in computational biology and bioinformatics.

Each workshop should offer an engaging perspective on the forefront of a selected research area. Workshops may include talks, short presentations, panel discussions, or other interactive formats that encourage participation and exchange.

Sessions taking place on Thursday 3 September will be scheduled as either:

  • Full-day sessions (7 hours in total: 9:00–17:30, including two 15-minute breaks and a 1-hour lunch), or
  • Half-day sessions (3:30 hours in total: morning 9:00–12:45 or afternoon 13:45–17:30, including one 15-minute break).

Submit a proposal

Proposals must be submitted via the EasyChair system. The final proposal must be uploaded as a single PDF file. The organizer(s) of the tutorials and workshops will be fully responsible for the scientific content. Each tutorial or workshop proposal should include the following information:

-    in the EasyChair submissions form:

  1. Author(s) --> organizer(s)
  2. Title of session (max 20 words)
  3. Length of session
  4. Session modality (tutorial/workshop)
  5. Keywords
  6. Relevance for the ECCB community
  7. PDF submission form (see below)

-    in the PDF submission document (download the template): 

  1. Title
  2. Topic, goals, motivation, and scope
  3. Abstract (max. 250 words)
  4. Relevance for ECCB 2026
  5. Target audience
  6. Prerequisites (tutorials only)
  7. Conference theme
  8. Maximum number of attendees
  9. Previous editions
  10. Speakers or trainers
  11. Tentative schedule
  12. Required materials or equipment
  13. Selection of contributions or speakers
  14. Organizers and experience


Deadline for proposals: Monday 5 January 2026

Key dates

Call for proposals 
Monday 3 November 2025 - Monday 5 January 2026

Acceptance notification
Thursday 26 February 2026

Final description texts due for posting
Wednesday 4 March 2026

Registration opens
Tuesday 10 March 2026

Registration deadline for organizers and speakers
Thursday 30 April 2026

Detailed programme with speakers
Thursday 28 May 2026

Draft tutorial materials due for review
Wednesday 15 July 2026

Final tutorial materials due for sharing with the tutorial participants
Thursday 20 August 2026

Tutorials and workshops at ECCB 2026
Thursday 3 September 2026

Schedule

Please follow the schedule below when drafting your preliminary programme. The timing of the breaks and lunch must be respected.

Time (CET)Details
09:00 - 10:30Tutorials and workshops
10:30 - 10:45Break
10:45 - 12:45Tutorials and workshops
12:45 - 13:45Lunch break
13:45 - 15:15Tutorials and workshops
15:15 - 15:30Break
15:30 - 17:30Tutorials and workshops

Evaluation criteria

All submissions will be evaluated by the committee, which will consider the following criteria:

  • Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to ECCB attendees
  • Expertise and experience of the workshop organizers and speakers and educational experience of the trainers of tutorials
  • Good balance between the theoretical component and hands-on exercises (for the tutorial proposals)
  • Good balance of speakers and instructors in terms of gender, countries, expertise
  • Completeness, clarity, and quality of the proposal and materials including schedule of tutorial
  • Feasibility of the proposal
  • Commitment to select a gender-balanced panel
  • Educational value and effectiveness of the proposed presentation approach and FAIRness of the data, tools and content
  • Overlap with workshops and tutorials held in previous editions

 

Decisions regarding accepted tutorial or workshop proposals will be communicated by 26 February 2026.

Tutorial materials

Trainers and tutorial speakers agree to provide teaching materials for review and for final sharing with participants at the dates indicated above, and to make their training materials FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), as much as possible.

On-site participation and presentation

  • All tutorials and workshops will take place on-site in Geneva (CICG). To foster exchanges and interactivity during the sessions, participants, organizers and presenters must be present in person.
  • In exceptional cases, the evaluation committee can approve the virtual participation of a tutorial/workshop presenter if unable to travel or attend on-site. Please indicate the reason for virtual attendance when submitting.

Roles and responsibilities of the conference and organizers

ECCB  will be responsible for: 

  • Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to ECCB attendees
  • Expertise and experience of the workshop organizers and speakers and educational experience of the trainers of tutorials
  • Good balance between the theoretical component and hands-on exercises (for the tutorial proposals)
  • Good balance of speakers and instructors in terms of gender, countries, expertise
  • Completeness, clarity, and quality of the proposal and materials including schedule of tutorial
  • Feasibility of the proposal
  • Commitment to select a gender-balanced panel
  • Educational value and effectiveness of the proposed presentation approach and FAIRness of the data, tools and content
  • Overlap with workshops and tutorials held in previous editions

Tutorial / workshop organizers will be responsible for:

  • Finding financial support for the organization of the tutorial/workshop. Tutorial/workshop organizers are highly encouraged to seek independent funding for travel and accommodation of their speakers / presenters
  • Advertising the tutorial/workshop and distributing its call for papers/participation (if applicable). This includes promoting their event to relevant newsgroups and mailing lists, and especially to potential audiences from outside the core ECCB conference community
  • Finalizing the programme/detailed schedule (incl. name of speakers) and providing material by the specific conference deadlines (see the key dates above)
  • Compiling and distributing material to the participants (if applicable). Note that you will be able to upload material as pdf on the conference website upon request and that no photocopying of handouts will be managed by the conference
  • Leading the event at ECCB

Open and FAIR

Note that organizers are responsible for ensuring that all tutorial and workshop materials are legally used and that appropriate copyright permissions have been obtained. Trainers will ensure that materials are as open and FAIR as possible. They agree that their materials may be made available to ECCB conference participants in any form and made available on the ECCB2026 website after the conferenced has ended.

Contact

Write to info@eccb2026.org if you have any doubt or question.