BOSC 2025, the 26th annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference, will take place July 21-22, 2025 in Liverpool, UK (as part of ISMB/ECCB 2025). BOSC covers all aspects of open source bioinformatics and open science. Abstract submission is open!
The second day of BOSC 2025 will be a joint session with the newly-renamed Bio-Ontologies and Knowledge Representation (BOKR), and will feature a joint keynote and talks on some of our favorite topics, including open data and reusable and reproducible science.
Last year’s conference, BOSC 2024, took place July 15-16, 2024 as part of ISMB 2024, in Montréal, Canada and online. Videos of the talks from BOSC 2024 are available on our YouTube channel. Our report about BOSC 2024 was published in F1000Research.
BOSC 2025 Key Dates
- April 17:
Abstract submission deadline (talks
and posters) - no extensions
- May 13: Acceptance notifications sent
- May 15: Late poster submission deadline
- May 22: Late poster acceptance notifications sent
- July 20-24, 2025: ISMB/ECCB 2025 (Liverpool, UK, and online)
- July 21-22, 2025: BOSC 2025 (part of ISMB/ECCB 2025)
- July 22 (second day of BOSC): Joint session with Bio-Ontologies and Knowledge Representation (BOKR)
- July 23-24: ISMB CollaborationFest (collaborative work event open to all who attend ISMB/ECCB)
Topics
- Open Science and Reproducible Research
- Open Biomedical Data
- Citizen/Participatory Science
- Standards and Interoperability
- Data Science
- Workflows
- Data Access and Visualization
- Translational Bioinformatics
- Developer Tools and Libraries
- Outreach and Training
- Open AI/ML
- …and more!
Registration and Financial Assistance
To participate in BOSC 2025 or the ISMB CollaborationFest, you will need to register for ISMB/ECCB 2025. Those who submit abstracts to BOSC can request a fee waiver on the submission form. You can also apply for an OBF Event Award; the deadline is April 1.
Sponsorships
Sponsorships from companies and non-profit organizations help to defray some of our costs and support our outreach efforts. Thanks to our sponsors, we were able to grant free registration to 15 participants at BOSC 2024, offer honoraria to keynote speakers, and cover other expenses.
If you’re interested in sponsoring BOSC 2025, please see our sponsors page!
2024 Platinum Sponsors:
2024 Gold Sponsor:
2024 Silver Sponsor:
About BOSC
The Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC) has been held annually since 2000. BOSC is organized by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), a non-profit group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of open source software development and open science within the biological research community.
Since its inception, BOSC has provided a forum for developers and users to interact and share research results and ideas in open source bioinformatics. BOSC’s broad spectrum of topics includes practical techniques for solving bioinformatics problems; software development practices; standards and ontologies; approaches that promote open science and sharing of data, results and software; and ways to grow and sustain open source communities.
BOSC is usually preceded or followed by CollaborationFest (CoFest for short), a two-day collaborative work session. This is an opportunity for anyone interested in open science, biology and programming to meet, talk and work collaboratively. In 2025, CollaborationFest will be part of ISMB/ECCB!
BOSC 2024 Organizing Committee
Chair: Nomi L. Harris (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
- Karsten Hokamp (Trinity College Dublin)
- Deepak Unni (SIB, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics)
- Jessica Maia (BD)
- Tazro Ohta (Chiba University)
- Jason Williams (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Monica Munoz-Torres (Univ. of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus)
- Hervé Ménager (Institut Pasteur)
Code of Conduct
As part of ISMB/ECCB 2025, BOSC 2025 is covered by the ISCB Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.