The Bioinfo4Women Programme: towards gender equity and diversity in science

The Bioinfo4Women programme (B4W) is a non-profit initiative of the Life Sciences department at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) to promote the research done by women in computational biology, and it supports researchers by promoting the exchange of knowledge and experience of outstanding women researchers through activities such as seminars, conferences, training and mentorships. B4W has particular focus on the areas of personalised medicine, bioinformatics and HPC, and ultimately aims at building a more collaborative, supportive, and equal scientific community. The Programme receives the institutional support of the Life Science department of the BSC and contributes to the fulfilment of the centre’s objective of promoting the development of a scientific career in accordance with the gender equality plan developed.

The B4W programme began its activities in 2018 by organizing seminars delivered by women researchers and financially supporting three B4W fellows, women who start their careers as independent researchers outside the BSC. The strategy and organization of the programme were shaped and redefined at the beginning of 2021 around five strategic lines of action 1) Support women’s career 2) Research line on Women’s Health and AI 3) Internationalisation and Networking 4) Communications 5) Strategy, Organisation and Financial engagement. The activities and participants are autonomously organised around five working groups, aligned to the lines of action and coordinated by the executive committee. The ISCB recognised B4W as a worldwide affiliated group in 2021.

The programme is part of the ELIXIR Spain node’s activities. Its ties with the infrastructure have been strengthening with its participation in the Biohackathon 2021 and 2022 with projects about the assessment of gender/sex bias in public repositories, and the accepted staff exchange “ELIXIR LEadership And Diversity mentoring programme - ELEAD” to kick-start in 2023. The Bioinfo4Women scope and actions can contribute on the future ELIXIR Working Programme 2024-28 regarding EDI topics.