When: August 31 – September 4, 2026
Where: Geneva, Switzerland

The 25th European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB 2026) will take place in Geneva from August 31 to September 4, 2026, organised by the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. The conference brings together researchers working across genomics, structural bioinformatics, systems biology, and biodiversity under the theme “Biodiversity, AI & Health: computational biology to address the challenges of our time”.

Programme overview

The main conference runs from August 31 to September 2, opening with a speech by the Swiss President and a public lecture on bioinformatics. Sessions include keynote talks, proceedings, highlight talks, an ELIXIR Track, and poster sessions.

September 3 is dedicated to tutorials and workshops, offering hands-on learning across a wide range of topics. Several are directly relevant to open science and FAIR research data management:

• ELIXIR-W1: FAIR metadata for bioinformatics software – practical guidance on making software outputs findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable
• ELIXIR-W2: Practical and pragmatic FAIRification of data in biodiversity, AI, health and beyond – a hands-on afternoon session applying FAIR principles across research domains

The event concludes on September 4 with a Communities Day, a satellite event covering SIB resources and community projects, including sessions on pathogen data platforms, the ELIXIR FAIRification Workshop, and the ELIXIR Single-Cell Omics Community. Communities Day registrations are handled separately by each organiser.

Registration

Conference registration is open, with regular rates available until June 30, 2026. Fees vary depending on career stage and affiliation. For the main conference, prices range from CHF 650 for students to CHF 1,450 for private sector participants. Late and on-site registration is also available at higher rates. Discounts are available for members of SIB, LS2, and ISCB, as well as for participants from lower-middle and low-income countries. Tutorials and workshops on September 3 are priced separately, at CHF 75–100 for a half day and CHF 150–200 for a full day.

More details and registration are available here.

About the organiser

ECCB 2026 is organised by the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, a non-profit organisation dedicated to biological and biomedical data science. SIB develops and maintains over 160 open-access bioinformatics resources and plays a leading role in training, data coordination, and the implementation of FAIR data practices across Europe. It federates a community of around 900 scientists in Switzerland and is one of the largest national nodes within ELIXIR – the European research infrastructure that connects life science databases, tools, and data repositories to support research and innovation across the continent.

Last updated on June 25, 2026