Travel: NSF Student Travel Grant for 2023 Computational Modeling in Biology Network (COMBINE) Forum

Standards for data exchange are critical in supporting the reliable exchange of information, interoperability of various tools, and reproducibility of scientific results. The COmputational MOdeling in Biology NEtwork (COMBINE) was created to coordinate standardization efforts for modeling in biology by providing a central point for discussions about standards relevant to biological studies and organizing regular face-to-face meetings among standards users and developers. COMBINE workshops have been instrumental in making progress in the development of these standards and in interacting closely with biologists that develop state-of-the-art models, such as whole-cell models. This award will support the COMBINE 2023 meeting to be held at the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling, University of Connecticut Health in Farmington, Connecticut, from October 5th to 8th, 2023. Travel and accommodation expenses for US-based students to attend the meeting will be partially supported. Priority will be given to participants from underrepresented groups who otherwise may find it very difficult to find the funds to attend. This workshop will provide a valuable educational and research experience for these participants, enabling students to share their work and interact with the larger community. COMBINE 2023 will be a workshop-style event with software tutorials, oral presentations, posters, and afternoon breakout sessions discussing various Systems Biology standards such as Systems Biology Markup Language, Systems Biology Graphical Notations, Synthetic Biology Open Language, etc. It will be held at the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling, University of Connecticut Health, Farmington, Connecticut, from October 5th to 8th, 2023. The four meeting days will include talks about the standards and related standardization efforts, working groups discussing the standards, and presentations of tools using these standards. Some oral presentations will be selected from abstracts submitted by the attendees. In addition, poster sessions will allow people to inform each other about their software and other projects in a setting that fosters interaction and in-depth discussion. The funding will provide partial support for travel, and accommodation expenses to 5-7 US-based students. The students will be selected by the COMBINE coordinators. The student applicants will provide a short narrative on why they are interested in participating, including a description of their current interest/involvement with standard development. Members of underrepresented groups will be especially encouraged to apply. At least one-third of the funds will be reserved for these individuals. The remainder of the funds will be utilized to support the attendance of students working on standards or developing critical software infrastructure that supports these standardization efforts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.