Support for COMBINE 2016

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Standards for data exchange are critical to the development of any field. They enable researchers and practitioners to exchange information reliably, apply a variety of tools to their problems, and reproduce scientific results. The COmputational MOdeling in Biology NEtwork (COMBINE) was created in 2010 to organize standardization efforts for systems biology. This effort includes, among others, the systems biology markup language (SBML) for mathematical modeling; the biological pathways exchange language (BioPaX) for describing pathways; the systems biology graphical notation (SBGN) for visual representations; and the synthetic biology open language (SBOL). The purpose of this grant is to support travel expenses for students, postdoctoral scholars, and participants from underrepresented groups to attend COMBINE 2016 to be hosted by Newcastle University in Newcastle, UK from September 19th to 23rd, 2016 (http://co.mbine.org/events/COMBINE_2016). This workshop will not only be a valuable educational experience for the student participants, but it will also provide them a valuable opportunity to interact with international researchers. Since this event will be held in the United Kingdom and will bring researchers from all over the world (the last one held in Salt Lake City, UT had representatives from six continents), this meeting will enhance and foster new international collaborations in the area of standards for data representation and exchange in biology. The United Kingdom has been a leader in systems and synthetic biology research and standard development. In particular, the UK government has identified synthetic biology as a national strategic research area (funding it with over £50m to date, https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/synthetic-biology-leadership-council) and has produced a Synthetic Biology Roadmap for the UK (http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/publications/reports/syntheticbiologyroadmap/). In fact, it can be argued that the US and UK have the largest research programs in these areas. Collaborations between these two countries in this area are essential to success. The UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and NSF have very recently initiated a joint funding effort that in particular includes synthetic biology (http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/nsfbio-lead-agency-pilot/). Indeed, it is crucial that the standards developed are not US or UK standards, but truly world data representation standards. NSF support (Funding provided from the Directorate of Computer Information Science and Engineering and the Office of International Science and Engineering is gratefully acknowledged) ensures a technical and diverse set of undergraduate, graduate, and post doctoral students can attend the conference to present research, learn more about the field, and expand their networking opportunities.