The aim of this call is to actively involve BITS members in the identification of focused themes for the scientific sessions of the Annual Meeting to be held in Udine, May 21-23, 2013.

Members, both individually or in team, can develop and submit proposals for consideration as contributed sessions within the following topics:

In the proposal, it should be stated:

• the specific topic of the session, with a brief rationale and a title;

• the name of an Italian researcher, not necessarily a BITS member, to be invited for a high-light talk on recently published results (i.e. in the years 2012/2013) on the topic of the session

Applicants may decide to provide additional information, such as:

• names of Italian and foreign researchers for possible oral communications;

• names and contact details of Italian and foreign companies, with

particular attention to start-ups and spin-offs, willing to sponsor the session;

• one or more BITS members who will support the proposal

All proposals will be revised and selected by the Scientific Committee that may ask/suggest the merging of similar topics. Selected sessions will be added to the Call for Abstracts and included in the final program of BITS 2013, provided that a sufficient number of quality contributions are received.

Proponents of successful sessions will contribute to the organization of the session and will be involved in the Scientific Committee as Chair or Co-Chair of the session.

All proposals must be submitted by email to segretario@bioinformatics.it

Deadlines:

January 30, 2013: Proposal submission

February 10, 2013: Acceptance notification (Sessions)

February 15, 2013: Opening of the Call for Abstracts

March 20, 2013: Abstract submission for oral communications and posters

April 20, 2013: Acceptance notification (Oral communications and posters)

June 30, 2013: Manuscript submission for the BITS supplement