BioHackathon Europe 2024 Report

BioHackathon Europe 2024 brought together an international community of life scientists, developers and data stewards for a week of collaborative, hands-on innovation. The hybrid event ran from 4 to 8 November at Campus Belloch near Barcelona.

Thirty projects tackled topics such as data interoperability, FAIR principles, metadata standards, identifiers, training, research software quality, human data and sustainability in the Galaxy ecosystem. The project teams worked in focused hacking sprints with short check-ins, midweek coordination sessions and final presentations. The open, cooperative format allowed for peer learning, leadership opportunities and strong community connections.

At the end of the week, participants produced tangible outputs ranging from new prototypes and tools to enhanced documentation, workflows and datasets. Many of these results were published on BioHackrXiv and shared through open repositories, extending their reach across the ELIXIR network and beyond.

The BioHackathon Europe event marks ELIXIR’s commitment to inclusive collaboration, open science and diversity, and demonstrates how concentrated, cross-disciplinary effort can accelerate progress and deliver lasting impact across the life sciences.