Widening participation would be key in enhancing bioinformatics and genomics research in Africa

Karikari, Thomas K.; Quansah, Emmanuel; Mohamed, Wael M.Y.

First, scientific societies should organise more outreach programmes specifically to train scientists in rural RHEIs in BGS. Initially, these programmes should focus on providing foundational tuition to trainees without any background in BGS, and later move on to intermediate and advanced levels. This would ensure that the needs of both scientists who would like to obtain expert training in BGS and those seeking to familarise themselves with specific skills and knowledge that are pertinent to their research activities would be attended to. Preferably, the training activities should be brought to the doorstep of the beneficiaries to ensure maximum patronage. Training could focus on experimental genomics as well as how to analyse genomics and related data using bioinformatics tools (especially using open source tools). These activities would have many potential benefits such as empowering trainee scientists to employ BGS tools and techniques to study human, plant and animal health and disease, and analyse research data from these areas. Since scientists at rural institutions are in proximity to rural residents, training them would also help to ensure that rural indigenous knowledge (RIK) is better applied in BGS research activities and is also better catered for in the development of ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) guidelines for BGS research (Worku et al., 2005) . Without adequate understanding of RIK and cooperation of the key community leaders, the effective application of BGS in Africa will be challenging (Ngueng-Feze et al., 2011) . In addition, BGS training can influence student training by ensuring that more students in rural RHEIs benefit from the introduction of BGS modules and degree programmes (Karikari, 2015b) . Presently, only a handful of institutions in a few African countries do provide bioinformatics degree courses, with only a few others offering bioinformatics modules as part of life science degree programmes (Bishop et al., 2015; Fatumo et al., 2014; Karikari, 2015a) . Improving the provision of BGS training in African universities would be an important step in widening participation in the disciplines (Karikari, 2015a) . Although the H3ABioNet is leading efforts to expand and harmonise BGS training (such as through the establishment of a bioinformatics education committee and the provision of outreach programmes), more stakeholders should get involved (Bishop et al., 2015; Karikari, 2015a) .