SPR/260834 - Provision of genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics training

The overall objective of this tender is to procure a Framework Contract to strengthen the capacity for genomic epidemiology and public health bioinformatics through interdisciplinary trainings, which is crucial for response during a pandemic or unexpected major public health events. The general objectives of the trainings are to support countries in building up their capacity in genomic epidemiology and bioinformatics for public health purposes, and to increase the interdisciplinary collaboration between bioinformaticians, epidemiologists and microbiologists within a country to facilitate the routine use of genomic information for surveillance, preparedness, and outbreak response. Activities shall also enhance data sharing and collaborations between public health institutions and ECDC, and enhanced networking activities will foster cross-border collaborations.

The target groups for the trainings are professionals working in public health institutions with a background in computational biology and bioinformatics; and professionals working in public health institutions who do not have a specific background in bioinformatics. The aims of the trainings are: * To allow the professionals with a background in computational biology and bioinformatics to:

• enhance and extend their skills in order to strengthen their capacity in the field of public health bioinformatics
• better understand the needs and concepts of epidemiology and public health microbiology, with a focus on the inputs and outputs needed by their counterparts (i.e. microbiologists, epidemiologists, professionals in public health surveillance and response) to take rapid and informed public health action. * To allow the professionals without a background in computational biology/bioinformatics to:
• gain a better understanding of how genomic epidemiology can be applied in a public health context with special focus on how traditional and genomic data can be jointly analysed, interpreted and used for public health purposes
• become more familiar with the concepts, formats and conventions commonly used in microbial genomics, and get a better understanding of how the structure and format of the data can be used to streamline the data analysis process
• better understand the concepts behind and use of the most common bioinformatic tools and pipelines used for epidemiological analyses, including limitations and possible alternatives; and
• gain a better overview of the basic principles, options for and best practices of data storage, management and sharing, with a specific focus on sequencing data and associated metadata.