Bioinformatics is growing fast — but in Nigeria, over 60% of aspiring bioinformaticians lack access to structured training, computational tools, and research infrastructure. This poster presents the work of Bioinformatics Outreach Nigeria (BON), a grassroots initiative using Python and open source tools to bridge that gap through a sustainable Community of Practice. BON ran two workshop iterations. In 2024, 48 participants were trained from 232 applicants. In 2025 — supported by the Society of Research Software Engineering and the Open Life Science Resident Fellowship — the program attracted nearly 1,000 applications, trained 60 participants, and provided mobile-data support to 45 Nigeria-based attendees to reduce access barriers. Sessions covered Git/GitHub workflows, FAIR data principles, open repositories, licensing, and reproducible research, facilitated by experts from OLS, DataCite, the Carpentries, and the Open Bioinformatics Foundation. Pre- and post-training assessments showed significant knowledge gains across both cohorts. This poster offers a practical framework for Python practitioners and community builders in research or education contexts: how to onboard non-technical scientists into open source workflows, design sustainable community infrastructure (Code of Conduct, contributor pathways, open licensing), and overcome real-world barriers like connectivity constraints and cultural hesitancy around sharing work-in-progress.

Bioinformatics is growing fast — but in Nigeria, over 60% of aspiring bioinformaticians lack access to structured training, computational tools, and research infrastructure. This poster presents the work of Bioinformatics Outreach Nigeria (BON), a grassroots initiative using Python and open source tools to bridge that gap through a sustainable Community of Practice. BON ran two workshop iterations. In 2024, 48 participants were trained from 232 applicants. In 2025 — supported by the Society of Research Software Engineering and the Open Life Science Resident Fellowship — the program attracted nearly 1,000 applications, trained 60 participants, and provided mobile-data support to 45 Nigeria-based attendees to reduce access barriers. Sessions covered Git/GitHub workflows, FAIR data principles, open repositories, licensing, and reproducible research, facilitated by experts from OLS, DataCite, the Carpentries, and the Open Bioinformatics Foundation. Pre- and post-training assessments showed significant knowledge gains across both cohorts. This poster offers a practical framework for Python practitioners and community builders in research or education contexts: how to onboard non-technical scientists into open source workflows, design sustainable community infrastructure (Code of Conduct, contributor pathways, open licensing), and overcome real-world barriers like connectivity constraints and cultural hesitancy around sharing work-in-progress.

Bioinformatics is growing fast — but in Nigeria, over 60% of aspiring bioinformaticians lack access to structured training, computational tools, and research infrastructure. This poster presents the work of Bioinformatics Outreach Nigeria (BON), a grassroots initiative using Python and open source tools to bridge that gap through a sustainable Community of Practice. BON ran two workshop iterations. In 2024, 48 participants were trained from 232 applicants. In 2025 — supported by the Society of Research Software Engineering and the Open Life Science Resident Fellowship — the program attracted nearly 1,000 applications, trained 60 participants, and provided mobile-data support to 45 Nigeria-based attendees to reduce access barriers. Sessions covered Git/GitHub workflows, FAIR data principles, open repositories, licensing, and reproducible research, facilitated by experts from OLS, DataCite, the Carpentries, and the Open Bioinformatics Foundation. Pre- and post-training assessments showed significant knowledge gains across both cohorts. This poster offers a practical framework for Python practitioners and community builders in research or education contexts: how to onboard non-technical scientists into open source workflows, design sustainable community infrastructure (Code of Conduct, contributor pathways, open licensing), and overcome real-world barriers like connectivity constraints and cultural hesitancy around sharing work-in-progress.

Bioinformatics is growing fast — but in Nigeria, over 60% of aspiring bioinformaticians lack access to structured training, computational tools, and research infrastructure. This poster presents the work of Bioinformatics Outreach Nigeria (BON), a grassroots initiative using Python and open source tools to bridge that gap through a sustainable Community of Practice. BON ran two workshop iterations. In 2024, 48 participants were trained from 232 applicants. In 2025 — supported by the Society of Research Software Engineering and the Open Life Science Resident Fellowship — the program attracted nearly 1,000 applications, trained 60 participants, and provided mobile-data support to 45 Nigeria-based attendees to reduce access barriers. Sessions covered Git/GitHub workflows, FAIR data principles, open repositories, licensing, and reproducible research, facilitated by experts from OLS, DataCite, the Carpentries, and the Open Bioinformatics Foundation. Pre- and post-training assessments showed significant knowledge gains across both cohorts. This poster offers a practical framework for Python practitioners and community builders in research or education contexts: how to onboard non-technical scientists into open source workflows, design sustainable community infrastructure (Code of Conduct, contributor pathways, open licensing), and overcome real-world barriers like connectivity constraints and cultural hesitancy around sharing work-in-progress.

Bioinformatics is growing fast — but in Nigeria, over 60% of aspiring bioinformaticians lack access to structured training, computational tools, and research infrastructure. This poster presents the work of Bioinformatics Outreach Nigeria (BON), a grassroots initiative using Python and open source tools to bridge that gap through a sustainable Community of Practice. BON ran two workshop iterations. In 2024, 48 participants were trained from 232 applicants. In 2025 — supported by the Society of Research Software Engineering and the Open Life Science Resident Fellowship — the program attracted nearly 1,000 applications, trained 60 participants, and provided mobile-data support to 45 Nigeria-based attendees to reduce access barriers. Sessions covered Git/GitHub workflows, FAIR data principles, open repositories, licensing, and reproducible research, facilitated by experts from OLS, DataCite, the Carpentries, and the Open Bioinformatics Foundation. Pre- and post-training assessments showed significant knowledge gains across both cohorts. This poster offers a practical framework for Python practitioners and community builders in research or education contexts: how to onboard non-technical scientists into open source workflows, design sustainable community infrastructure (Code of Conduct, contributor pathways, open licensing), and overcome real-world barriers like connectivity constraints and cultural hesitancy around sharing work-in-progress.