Return to H2020 Twinning Project OLISSIPO

End of project and future

Building a Solid Seed for Future Activities in Computational Biology: The OLISSIPO Project

When it comes to scientific discovery, computational biology, applying mathematics and computer science to study complex biological systems, is a discipline that stands at the forefront, revolutionising our approach to healthcare and medicine. European projects in this field are pushing the boundaries of what is possible, harnessing the power of big data and of advanced combinatorial and machine learning computational methods to decode the complexities of life. From personalised medicine to groundbreaking disease research, these initiatives are not just advancing science—they are transforming our future.

One such European project, is OLISSIPO – Fostering Computational Biology Research and Innovation in Lisbon, launched in January 2021 and coordinated by Susana Vinga at INESC-ID, a research and development centre in Lisbon. Along with the partners of the project including Inria’s team, ERABLE, led by Marie-France Sagot, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory at Heidelberg, and ETH Zürich, the project aimed to enhance knowledge in computational biology at INESC-ID.

The project hoped this international collaboration would build a solid seed in computational biology through numerous activities such as:

  • Short-term staff exchanges,
  • Joint events, schools, workshops and conferences,
  • Promoting Early Stage Researchers’ (ESR) careers,
  • Strengthening research management and administration skills within INESC-ID.

The project helped build capacity not only for researchers but for research managers and administrators. According to one Early Stage Researcher participating in the program:

“For me, as an ESR, being part of this project is an empowering experience, because it allows me not only to participate in different workshops and conferences boosting my knowledge on computational biology, but also to share my research results and meet fellow peers across the world.”

Beyond the researchers, the project partners also proposed outreach activities to engage young students from basic and secondary schools in Portugal by inviting them to visit INESC-ID and participate in computational biology challenges.

By the numbers:

  • 2 Winter schools and 1 Summer school
  • 9 workshops
  • 4 online seminars
  • 5 alumni lectures

With some workshops boasting up to more than 150 participants, OLISSIPO not only allowed all project partners and participating researchers to enhance their knowledge but also multiply opportunities to collaborate and build future projects with ESRs and the larger scientific community.

Indeed, besides the fact that such future projects are currently in the process of being written, with the first ones being submitted in the first semester of 2025, the partner from Portugal is also, with the help notably of Erable, participating in the establishment of a Portuguese Society in bioinformatics and computational biology along the lines of the SFBI, the French Society of BioInformatics (https://www.sfbi.fr/). Moreover, a first national conference within the premises of such Portuguese Society is being planned already, with a desire to organise it before the end of 2025.

It will again be along the lines of the French national conference JOBIM (for “Journées Ouvertes : Biologie, Informatique, Mathématiques”) which has since its first edition in 2000 taken place every year with a number of participants above 500. Moreover, Susana Vinga and the Portuguese members of OLISSIPO have made a proposition to host the European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB) in Lisbon in 2028.

Besides such planned National and European conferences, and given its high success, the online “Workshop on Metabolism and mathematical models: Two for a tango” (https://team.inria.fr/erable/en/events/workshop-metabolism-and-mathematical-models-two-for-a-tango/) will be continued in the future. Indeed, a fourth edition took place already five months after the end of OLISSIPO, in November 2024. Another online workshop discussed with INESC-ID within the context of OLISSIPO was started, with the first edition taking place also in November 2024. This new workshop is called “Phylogeny and Cophylogeny: Tree for a Tango” (https://bioinf.isel.pt/tree-for-a-tango/). Given its success as for the Two for a Tango workshop, Tree for a Tango will continue in the future, with one edition planned every year.

As OLISSIPO comes to end, we can then say that the connections made and expertise shared did help advance research within computational biology and innovation, in Portugal but also in Europe more in general.

Permanent link to this article: https://team.inria.fr/erable/en/projects/olissipo/end-of-project-and-future/