Objective
LEGO aims to fill this educational gap by first defining the characteristics, knowledge and skills required for a specific hybrid research and professional profile, which does not correspond to any current education or training offer at university level and across the EU. In fact, although it is already required in the sectoral labour market (Levine 2014), this educational and professional curriculum, which the project proposes to define as a “Food Microbial Bioinformatician”, has not yet been formalised or codified. Therefore, since bioinformatics and data management are not commonly taught to microbiologists, statisticians, epidemiologists and veterinarians, just as microbiology, statistics and epidemiology are not commonly taught to bioinformaticians working in food safety (Attwood et al., 2017), the project will establish interdisciplinary training combining all these disciplines and using eLearning and intensive field study programmes. In addition, the training will focus on specific pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and VTEC, in line with the priorities identified by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the joint molecular typing database of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) (Rizzi et al., 2017, in Euroreference 2 – March 2017). At a broader level, LEGO will have a positive impact on the possibilities for qualified professionals to meet market demands, while enhancing their professional development more than ever (see Levine, A., 2014. “An explosion of bioinformatics careers. In, Science Magazine”, 13/06/2014; EFSA Scientific Report 2014 “Use of WGS of food-borne pathogens for public health protection”).
Activities
01 The “Food Microbial Bioinformatician” (FMB) – A new professional profile
02 E-learning pathways for food microbial bioinformaticians
03 “Startupper bricks“
04 LEGO Platform
Results obtained
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Dissemination/Transfer
The project dissemination actions were:
