This program can only run with the active involvements of our volunteer community who share a passion for Open Research and inclusiveness in Open Science:
Mentees
Our mentees are life science researchers and bioinformaticians who are interested in contributing to Open Science projects and communities. In this program they will be supported by the organisers, mentors, experts, and other mentees in getting started with their journey as Open Life Scientists.
Our mentees will:
- gain a better understanding of Open Science and best practices
- fill gaps related to Open Science in their research
- learn to navigate their path in bioinformatics communities
- design equitable opportunities in their projects for the diverse community members
- increase their visibility as Open Life Scientist
- become Open Science ambassadors for their community
Becoming a mentee
A mentee dedicates about 2 hours per week to the program to attend cohort/mentor meetings and doing self-guided assignments.
Recruitment of the mentees will start in November. Stay tuned!
Mentors
Mentors work closely with participants to help further their Open Science skills and become ambassadors for Open Science practice, training and education in their communities. The mentors will be assigned to one or more projects (based on their availability) proposed in the program.
Our mentors are:
- contributors of one or several Open Science projects or communities
- interested in sharing the benefit they receive from the Open Science communities
- look for opportunities to gain mentoring experience
- love to share their enthusiasm about Open Science
- want to build their profile as Open Leaders
What do mentors do?
Mentors advise and inspire:
- Connect to people, programs
- Recommend resources, readings, experiences
- Feedback to consider
A mentor spend around 1 hour per week dedicated to the program, but also some time before the program to review applications.
They will meet their mentees every two weeks during the program and will attend group calls with other mentors to exchange notes and develop their mentoring skills further.
What are the benefits to be a mentor?
Our mentors will
- gain mentoring skills (active listening, effective questioning, giving feedback) via mentoring training
- learn to celebrate successes and approach challenges in mentoring
- connect with a community of mentors
- expand their knowledge on Open Science
Becoming a mentor
Mentoring is usually an invitation-based role. Mentors join by graduating from a previous cohort, by becoming an expert for at least one round, or by invitation when a specific skills gap is needed. Please reach out to one of the organizers if you are interested.
Our mentors
Our program is only possible thanks to our awesome mentors:
- The 20 mentors for OLS-1 (January to May 2020)
- The 36 mentors for OLS-2 (September to December 2020)
- The 34 mentors for OLS-3 (February to May 2021)
- The 32 mentors for OLS-4 (September to December 2021)
Experts
Experts will be invited to join cohort calls or individual mentorship calls to share their experience and expertise during the program.
Our experts are:
- motivated Open Life Scientists
- understand and advocate the value of working openly
- look for opportunities to support or give back to the research community
- enjoy sharing their resources to facilitate others work
- develop and teach skills collaboratively in the community
- want to gain/improve leadership skills through their engagements in this program
Becoming an expert
Experts may be invited to:
- give a ~20 minute talk at one of our cohort calls, which happen every two weeks.
- be interviewed by the organisers (~15 minutes)
- invited by mentor-mentee pair to share their expert consultation on certain projects. (~30 minutes)
We are currently recruiting the experts - this route is a good way to join the program if you are already an open research practitioner and don’t wish to participate as a cohort member.
Our experts
Our experts are essential for the program:
- The 37 experts for OLS-1 (January to May 2020)
- The 65 experts for OLS-2 (September to December 2020)
- The 63 experts for OLS-3 (February to May 2021)
- The 46 experts for OLS-4 (September to December 2021)
Facilitators
Facilitators work closely with the OLS organisers to manage and run cohort calls. They lead efforts in preparing cohort call notes, co-hosting cohort calls and ensuring the sharing of call recordings and resources through OLS channels.
Our facilitators are:
- Project leads, mentors or experts in a previous cohort
- Keen to learn more about the operations of OLS and take a vital role in leading/facilitating the cohort calls
- Committed to contribute time and leadership skills towards building a collaborative experience for the attendees of OLS cohort call.
Becoming a facilitator
Facilitators are invited to:
- attend an onboarding call (30 mins)
- sign up for responsibilities pre-, during or after one or more cohort calls, ranging from 15 mins to 2hours
- participate in a feedback call at the end of a cohort (30 mins)
This is an invitation-based role. Facilitators are offered an honourarium in recognition of their valuable contributions to the programme.
Founders
Bérénice is a bioinformatician (post-doc in the Freiburg Galaxy Team), analyzing biological data and developing tools for data analysis, mainly via Galaxy. Bérénice is also passionate about training, regularly giving workshops (data analysis, tool development, etc). She started and still co-leads the Galaxy Training Material project. She is a co-deputy training coordinator for ELIXIR Germany (de.NBI, and a founder of Street Science Community, an outreach program.
Malvika Sharan is the community manager of _The Turing Way- at The Alan Turing Institute. Malvika works with its community of diverse members to develop resources and ways that can make data science accessible for a wider audience. Malvika has a PhD in Bioinformatics and she worked at European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Germany, that helped her solidify her values as an Open Researcher and community builder. She is a co-founder of the Open Life Science program, a fellow of Software Sustainability Institute, a board member of Open Bioinformatics Foundation, and a contributing member of The Carpentries community.’
Yo is Open Source Technology Lead at the Wellcome Trust’s Data for Science and Health team, a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow, co-founder of Open Life Science and Code is Science, EngD student at the University of Manchester studying pathogen-related data sharing and sustainability of open source software. Previously, they were editor for the PLOS Open Source Toolkit, editor emeritus at the Journal of Open Source Software, board member of the Open Bioinformatics Foundation, and a software developer at the University of Cambridge, working on an open source biological data warehouse called InterMine.
We also participate in a wide range of activities in different international communities of practice in the life sciences:
- ELIXIR (European bioinformatics network)
- Galaxy
- The Carpentries
- Software Sustainability Institute (SSI)
- Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF)
- Mozilla and Mozilla Open Leaders
Our values
We have high ethical standards, including:
- Education: Educate scientists about open science
- Transparency: Emphasize transparency and the sharing of resources, material, knowledge and experiences
- Open science: Promote citizen science and decentralized access to science
- Modesty: Know you don’t know everything
- Community: Carefully listen to any concerns and questions and respond honestly
- Respect: Respect humans and all living systems
- Responsibility: Recognize the complexity and dynamics of life science and research and our responsibility towards them
Get involved
If you think you can help then please check out our contributors’ guidelines and our project board.
Please note that it’s very important to us that we maintain a positive and supportive environment for everyone who wants to participate. When you join us we ask that you follow our code of conduct in all interactions both on and offline.