ERGA News #42 - October 2026
News
The BioGenome Seminar is growing up. Rather unexpectedly, into a Network. 🧬
It started with a seminar, a few scientists, some fascinating projects and tools, and an impressive number of questions. But we soon realised that Europe has a remarkable collection of genomic expertise. We just don't always know where to find it, what's missing, or who needs what. So, we're expanding the format.
Introducing the ERGA BioGenome Applications Network. The idea is basic (the execution, perhaps, slightly less so), we want to connect people, identify gaps in expertise and resources, share tools and knowledge, and help turn genomic data into something useful for biodiversity research and conservation. But before we start assembling the pieces, we need a map. And that's where you come in.
We've prepared a survey to discover who's doing what, where expertise is available, what challenges researchers face, and which skills, workflows and training opportunities could make a difference. Whether you're a seasoned bioinformatician, a newcomer, or someone who has spent three days (weeks) trying to make a pipeline work, we'd love to hear from you.
Because somewhere in Europe, someone might already have the answer to your question. We just need to find them!
A little changing of the guard is coming to the ERGA Council this Monday, with a new Chair, two new Vice Chairs!Â
The ERGA community is invited to join us as we welcome the new EB team and give a proper, slightly sentimental farewell to our departing colleagues, because every good chapter deserves a memorable ending and an exciting new beginning! 🧬
New SOPs for Field Sampling
The SSP committee has released two new ERGA Standard Operating Procedures, openly available in the ERGA Workflowhub space.
Amphibians: covers permits and animal welfare, field sampling, DNA and RNA preservation and biobanking, as well as photographs, metadata and sample traceability. 🔗 https://workflowhub.eu/sops/29
Salmonids:Â covers permits and ethics, planning the sampling, what to pack, handling and documenting the fish, which tissues to collect, preservation, metadata and traceability, and where the data should end up. It also includes a field checklist.Â
iBOL Europe, ERGA and CETAF Sign a Memorandum of Understanding at COP17
The three communities behind BGE+, iBOL Europe, ERGA and CETAFÂ signed a Memorandum of Understanding during COP17, the UN Biodiversity Conference taking place in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October. The MoU sets out a roadmap towards a coordinated European research infrastructure for biodiversity genomics. By signing it at COP17, BGE+ also wants to highlight how digital sequence information (DSI) can help deliver the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. A BGE+ position paper identifies five areas that need further work: accessibility to technology, capacity building, quality control, standardisation and data interoperability.
ERGA BioGenome Analysis & Applications Seminar: Museum Specimens and the Moss Carder Bee
The October seminar took place on 26 October and is now available to rewatch. Professor Ian Barnes, Inez Januszczak and Dr Yacine Ben Chehida showed how museum specimens reveal a decline of about 25% in the genetic diversity of the moss carder bumblebee over the past century.Â
▶️ Watch the recording | More information
đź“… Save the date:Â the next seminar takes place on November 27th - time and topic will be announced soon!
Committee highlights
Sample and Sample Processing (SSP): The manuscript on natural collections and how to access biological samples is finalised. The committee is now turning to sample processing, starting with a review of what the literature reports on wet-lab DNA and RNA processing metadata. A second review, on the metadata and data deposited alongside genomic studies, will be done in collaboration with the COST Action CONSENSA. SSP meets on the first Friday of each month and is open to everyone; simply contact samples@erga-biodiversity.eu if you would like to join. Congratulations also on the recent protocol publications, which are attracting impressive views and downloads!
Sequencing and Assembly (SAC): Last month’s talk covered the Trivial Tangle Traverser (TTT), a tool for finishing telomere-to-telomere assemblies. Coming up: a talk on decontamination (removing non-host sequences), and a talk on the Universal Genome Note, tentatively in December. It automates the minimum information needed to understand how an assembly was produced, and should make writing a traditional genome report even easier. Work continues on assembly benchmarking within BGE+, and on a new assembly review process.
IT & Infrastructure:Â Meetings resumed in October with plenty to discuss. Everyone is welcome to join if you like talking about platforms and data lineage, and listening to other EU initiatives. Please reach out to itinfra@erga-biodiversity.eu.
👋 Get involved Committee meetings continue in the coming weeks. To join, reach out via the committee emails listed here.
Connecting Biodiversity Biobanks: New GGBN Paper in BioScience
A new open-access paper in BioScience describes how our Associated Partner, the Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN), links biodiversity biobanks with infrastructures such as INSDC, BOLD, GBIF and DiSSCo, using shared standards and persistent identifiers. GGBN now has 121 member organisations in over 40 countries and gives access to more than 7 million biological material records. The paper also highlights how biobank collections supply the vouchers and samples that initiatives like ERGA, iBOL Europe and CETAF rely on.
Events
LRUA 2026 – Long-Read Sequencing Uppsala
Uppsala, 2–4 November 2026
The annual long-read sequencing meeting from NGI and Clinical Genomics Uppsala, this year with a Biodiversity workshop and speakers including Evan Eichler, Rosa Fernández and Linnea Smeds.
9 - 13 November | Barcelona, Spain
7 - 12 December | Göttingen, GermanyÂ
30 March - 01 April| Cambridge, UK
7 - 9 April | New York, US
Featured conferences with sessions organized by ERGA members:
Are you attending events or organizing sessions/workshops not listed here? Let us know here, we can help you reach more attendees from the biodiversity genomics community!
Useful links
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