BCNet Symposium

The BCNet symposium "From Biobank Infrastructure to Research: How BCNet Member Biobanks and Cohorts Are Contributing to Address Public Health Concerns" was held from 27 November to 1 December 2017 in Lyon, France, in collaboration with the second B3Africa face-to-face training. The event gathered overall 58 participants (67% women, 33% men). 30 organisations/projects were represented, mainly from Europe (38%) and Africa (55%).

The symposium's programme included:

• Introductory presentations by Dr Maimuna Mendy and Ms Marianne Henderson (The BCNet Journey, Landscape of Biobanking, Biobanking for Research: Steps Toward Success).
  
  Watch video presentations here: IARC video channel 65
• Presentations of high quality biobank-based research projects from Nigeria, Indonesia, Senegal, Egypt, Ghana, Poland and Ivory Coast, as well as of the BCNet Catalogue.
  
  Discover about those great projects here: IARC video channel 63
• Presentation by external speakers (REECAO project in West Africa, the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Africa (AESA), the Ebola Biobank Samples in Sierra Leone, the European Virus Archive goes Global (EVAg) EU funded consortium, and the B3Africa project.
  
  Watch presentations here: IARC video channel 66

From the participants' perspective, results show a very good level of satisfaction. The combination of the symposium, during which participants could open to new research collaborations, and the training workshop, in which we proposed tools to facilitate such collaborations, have been appreciated by the audience and generated positive feedbacks.

To learn more about this joint event, the program, abstracts and participants' biographies, consult the report.