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The H3ABioNet pan-African bioinformatics network, which is funded to support the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program, has developed node-assessment exercises to gauge the ability of its participating research and service groups to analyze typical genome-wide datasets being generated by H3Africa research groups. We describe a framework for the assessment of computational genomics analysis skills, which includes standard operating procedures, training and test datasets, and a process for administering the exercise. We present the experiences of 3 research groups that have taken the exercise and the impact on their ability to manage complex projects. Finally, we discuss the reasons why many H3ABioNet nodes have declined so far to participate and potential strategies to encourage them to do so., Author summary Many programs have been developed to boost the technical and computational skills of scientists working in low to medium income countries (LMIC), who often struggle to remain competitive with their peers in more developed parts of the world. Typically, these programs rely on intensive workshops where students acquire and exercise these skills under the supervision of experienced trainers. However, when trainees return to their home institutions, even after extensive exposure to state of the art techniques, they often find it difficult to put the skills they have acquired into practice and to establish themselves as fully independent practitioners. We have attempted to build a framework through which teams of scientists in African research groups can demonstrate that they have acquired the necessary skills to analyze different types of genomic datasets. Three teams of scientists who have successfully submitted to this assessment exercise report their positive experiences. Many potential participants have so far declined the opportunity, and we discuss the reasons for their reluctance as well as possible ways to facilitate their engagement and provide them with incentives. We argue that assessments such as this could be part of any program aiming to develop technical skills in scientists wishing to support genomic research programs.

Background: Although pockets of bioinformatics excellence have developed in Africa, generally, large-scale genomic data analysis has been limited by the availability of expertise and infrastructure. H3ABioNet, a pan-African bioinformatics network, was established to build capacity specifically to enable H3Africa (Human Heredity and Health in Africa) researchers to analyze their data in Africa. Since the inception of the H3Africa initiative, H3ABioNet’s role has evolved in response to changing needs from the consortium and the African bioinformatics community.Objectives: H3ABioNet set out to develop core bioinformatics infrastructure and capacity for genomics research in various aspects of data collection, transfer, storage, and analysis.Methods and Results: Various resources have been developed to address genomic data management and analysis needs of H3Africa researchers and other scientific communities on the continent. NetMap was developed and used to build an accurate picture of network performance within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world, and Globus Online has been rolled out to facilitate data transfer. A participant recruitment database was developed to monitor participant enrollment, and data is being harmonized through the use of ontologies and controlled vocabularies. The standardized metadata will be integrated to provide a search facility for H3Africa data and biospecimens. Because H3Africa projects are generating large-scale genomic data, facilities for analysis and interpretation are critical. H3ABioNet is implementing several data analysis platforms that provide a large range of bioinformatics tools or workflows, such as Galaxy, the Job Management System, and eBiokits. A set of reproducible, portable, and cloud-scalable pipelines to support the multiple H3Africa data types are also being developed and dockerized to enable execution on multiple computing infrastructures. In addition, new tools have been developed for analysis of the uniquely divergent African data and for downstream interpretation of prioritized variants. To provide support for these and other bioinformatics queries, an online bioinformatics helpdesk backed by broad consortium expertise has been established. Further support is provided by means of various modes of bioinformatics training.Conclusions: For the past 4 years, the development of infrastructure support and human capacity through H3ABioNet, have significantly contributed to the establishment of African scientific networks, data analysis facilities, and training programs. Here, we describe the infrastructure and how it has affected genomics and bioinformatics research in Africa.HighlightsH3ABioNet is building capacity to enable analysis of genomic data in Africa.Infrastructure has been built for clinical and genomic data storage, management, and analysis.New algorithms and pipelines for African genomic data analysis have been developed.Data are being harmonized using ontologies to enable easy search and retrieval.Genomics training is implemented using various online and face-to-face approaches.