SWAT4LS aftermath

The 2009 edition of SWAT4LS was held on the November 20th in Amsterdam.
It was attended by 56 participants.
We collected some feedback (from about 60%) of the participants.

The scientific quality of the workshop was rated very good (top evaluation) from 28% , good by 66% and average by 6% of participants.

The most appreciated aspects have been the keynotes, the constructive atmosphere, the content and the limited size.

The most problematic aspects were related to the organization, in particular the difficulty to find the place (construction site) and the delays. These last point is related to another frequent complaint: the tight timing.

A vast majority of people indicated that they would like to see a longer workshop (2 days) with a tutorial session.

Among desiderata for the next workshop is in primis more technical/"how to" related content, which seems to fit the request for a tutorial session.

All participants expressed (if possible) the intention to participate to the next edition of the workshop.

Registrations are open!

Registrations to SWAT4LS are now open. You can find instructions to register on the SWAT4LS website and on this website.
While registrations will be open up to and during the event (registrations on site are possible), we can only assure the availability of conference bags and/or related items for "very" early registrations.

The BMC Bioinformatics Supplement for SWAT4LS is out!

The BMC Bioinformatics supplement dedicated to the 2008 edition of SWAT4LS (Semantic Web Applications and Tools for Life Sciences) has been published, and is accessible here.

Special issue in the Journal of Biomedical Semantics dedicated to SWAT4LS

A selection of contribution from SWAT4LS will be invited to submit to a special issue if the new BMC Journal of Biomedical Semantics dedicated to the workshop. The call will be open in the beginning of 2010 (to be defined) for all participants to SWAT4LS (accepted papers, posters and demos).

SWAT4LS extended deadlines

The deadlines for the submissions to SWAT4LS have been extended:

Submission openinig: 1 September 2009
Intention to submit (abstract only): 5 Ocober 2009
Submission of oral communications (papers): 12 October 2009
Submission for posters and demos: 15 October 2009
Communication of acceptance: 28 October 2009
Camera ready: 13 November 2009

SWAT4LS receives support from VL-e and NBIC

The 2009 edition of SWAT4LS will be supported by the Virtual Laboratory for e-Science and by the Netherland Bioinformatics Center.

Keynote Speakers

The keynote speakers for the 2009 edition of SWAT4LS will be:


Barend Mons,
Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam and Leiden University Medical Center



Michael Schroeder,
Biotechnology Center TU Dresden



Alan Ruttenberg,
Science Commons

Announcing SWAT4LS09

SWAT4LS
Semantic Web Application and Tools for Life Sciences

SWAT4LS is a workshop that provides a venue to present and discuss benefits and limits of the adoption of Semantic Web technologies and tools in biomedical informatics and computational biology.
The first edition, held in Edinburgh in November 2008, received 40 submissions, of which 13 were accepted as oral communications, and part of them included in a special issue of BMC Bioinformatics dedicated to the workshop (in preparation).
The second edition of SWAT4LS will provide the same open and stimulating environment that brought together researchers, both developers and users, from the various fields of Biology, Bioinformatics and Computer Science, to discuss goals, current limits and real experiences in the use of Semantic Web technologies in Life Sciences.

SWAT4LS Call for Papers

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Standards, Technologies, Tools for the Semantic Web
    Semantic Web standards and new proposals (RDF, OWL, SKOS,... )
    Biomedical Ontologies and related tools
    Formal approaches to large biomedical knowledge bases
Systems for a Semantic Web for Bioinformatics
    RDF stores, Reasoners, query and visualization systems for life sciences
    Semantic biomedical Web Services
    Semantics aware Biological Data Integration Systems
Existing and prospective applications of the Semantic Web for Bioinformatics
    Semantics aware application tools
    Semantic collaborative research environments
    Case studies, use cases, and scenarios

For more details visit the SWAT4LS-09 website.