This training programme aims to provide junior researchers and students from South Africa with a comprehensive grounding in the principles of genomics approaches to studying arthropods that are particularly important because of their impacts on human, livestock, and crop health as disease vectors, on agriculture as pests, pollinators, or biological control agents, and more generally in ecology and environmental conservation. The programme will focus on practical training in biocuration skills that will enable the participants to make the most of the publically-available genomic resources to further their own research projects.

The draft schedule proposes training programmes covering five universities in South Africa. Each programme will cover an introduction to the latest developments in arthropod genomics (especially disease-vectors) and the processes involved in developing the genomic resources. They will then focus on teaching practical skills in biocuration of genomics data with hands-on exercises using computational tools to visualise and edit gene annotations in genome browsers using VectorBase resources (www.vectorbase.org). The aim of acquiring these practical skills is twofold: to give researchers the biocuration knowledge and the confidence to be able to critically assess and understand such genomics data, and in so doing, enable them to further their own research projects and scientific interests by making the best use of available genomic data and promote collaborations.

For further information, please see the programme webpage: www.rmwaterhouse.org/sa