In terms of an overall assessment of the progress of the action, BIRDS has achieved most of the goals planned for the first year, regarding research, training and networking activities. The consortium has achieved relevant scientific contributions, created new collaborations and enhanced existing ones, and proposed and implemented well attended training and networking activities.
All secondments were successfully implemented, regarding the internal procedures. The host institution designated a supervisor or responsible person to assure that the seconded staff was provided with all necessary equipment, guidance and mentoring, if needed. All of the secondments contributed to the scientific development of the project, generating foreseen publications in all cases (some already accepted and published). Most of these secondments are expected to be continued in following years, some of them during Year 2, which highlights how fruitful these collaborations and transfers of knowledge have been. Considering the initial secondment plan included in the proposal, there is a delay on the completion of planned secondments. Despite this deviation, the scientific objectives of the project have not been affected and the expected contributions, results and impact remain in line with forecasts. In any case, the consortium has agreed to monitor all planned and executed secondments more closely to prevent future deviations and noncompliances, and remains confident of completing the scheduled secondments at the end of the 1st Reporting Period (at the end of Year 2).
The scientific research done during all the completed secondments and generated during the training and networking events was published in top quality international journals and conferences. It is remarkable the high number of publications generated during these collaborations, taking into account that this list of publications does not include other research articles or papers published by members of the consortium but not directly related with BIRDS funding, even if those articles are related with the progress of the action and contributed to the development of the field. There were other publications generate by join-work among the partners in line with the project.
The consortium complied with all the disseminatin goals for this period. BIRDS organized one workshop (StringMasters A Coruña 2016) and one summer school (1st Summer School on Bioinformatics Data Structures) with high attendance of early-stage and experienced researchers. These events were open to all the scientific community and covered by local press, which helped in the dissemination of the project.