1. Egyptian scholars who have earned their PhD within the past five years (following December 2000) or who will achieve their PhD before end-December 2006.
2. Applicants must hold a current position at a public/private academic or research institution in Egypt, and the research must be conducted in Egypt.
3. Currently engaged or can arrange to work on a joint research project with foreign counterpart(s) at a university or research center abroad.
4. Applicants must not exceed 35 years of age by January 2006.
5. Grant applications must be submitted online before 15 December 2006.

1. Dates: 13-24 January 2007
2. Workshop Objectives:

   Our aim is to present a hands-on approach to Computational Biology software for computing novices. We will provide an overview of available software, discuss some of the ideas behind the approaches and tackle some common tasks. The workshop has many practical examples and these try to follow typical mini projects so that the relevance is apparent.

   Computers are part of our every day lives. Everywhere you go they are used to keep track of data, process transactions and support communication. The Human Genome Project (and other genome sequencing projects) is producing data at an astounding rate; currently sequence entries are being added to the EMBL sequence database faster than we can read their one-line descriptions on average, one new sequence per second.

   The task of processing all this data and converting sequences into gene and protein predictions would be impossible without the development of computer based analysis tools. The last few years have seen a rapid acceleration in the development of new bioinformatics approaches, and a dramatic increase in the number of researchers involved in this field.

   So why do we need to learn computational Analysis? At the very least, we will need to identify whether a gene of interest has already been sequenced, and whether there are related sequences. If we aren"t working on humans, or one of the other organisms that is being sequenced, there will be fewer pre-prepared resources available to us, although this discrepancy is narrowing, as more and more Genome projects are completed.

   
   
3. Sponsors

   The Conference of Islamic Countries (COMSTECH) and Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman

4. Candidates:
   Total 30 [ Software Developers and Software Users]

   Mathematicians, Statisticians, Computer Science Candidates, Software Developers, Biologists, Geneticists and Physicians from Islamic Countries. Level of experience preferred: Masters or Doctoral Degrees. Evidence of involvement in research in Computational Biology or related fields must be provided.

5. Organization:

   Professor Riad Bayoumi, Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman

6. Course venue
   

   Annex Building Computer Facility. College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.

7. Registration

   Registration is needed.
   Please also send a CV and supporting evidence of involvement in research, to
   Professor Riad Bayoumi
   Department of Biochemistry
   College of Medicine & Health Sciences
   Sultan Qaboos University
   P.O.Box: 35, Al Khod,
   Postal Code 123.
   Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
   Phone No: 00968-24141113
   Fax : 00968-24413880
   E-mail: bayoumi@squ.edu.om and
   taruna@squ.edu.om (Secretary)

8. Candidate Selection

   Registration Forms, CVs and supporting evidence have to be returned before 15th September 2006. Candidates will be selected and informed by 15th October 2006. Visa requirements and travel arrangements will be communicated to successful candidates by 1st November 2006.

The Center for Arab Women Training and Research (CAWTAR) and the World Bank have established the Gender Economic Research and Policy Analysis (GERPA) Initiative whose purpose is to promote quality research work that is policy relevant and that can bridge the gap between policy and action. Gender mainstreaming is the approach adopted by GERPA to make sure that research agendas address the particular circumstances of women.

In this perspective, the GERPA vision is to build on well established policy making economic research institutions, think-tanks and university departments and to provide incentives and mechanisms to make gender sensitive research a routine part of the policy discourse over time.

More specifically, the GERPA objective is to provide incentives and funding to support gender research within previously “gender neutral” economic research agendas and research related activities on one hand, and to incorporate more of the economic discipline in the methodology of existing gender research on the other hand. Research should include more than one country, except in some cases where the research is of a pilot nature.

Invitation for Proposals
Proposals are due by 20 September 2006 and are to be submitted by email as a word or PDF document to the GERPA Secretariat. Proposals are accepted in English (preferable), French, Arabic and Farsi.
Proposals should be sent to the following e- mail addresses:
gerpa06@yahoo.com, mary.kraetsch@yahoo.com and yasmine.nader@yahoo.com.