The Biochemical Society is providing online/virtual training workshops in Python and R.
These courses are free for member residents in low-income countries.
There are also various discounts for Biochemical Society members who are students (£30), early careers researchers (£48), and full members (£60); otherwise, non-members (£96).
Bursaries are also available to help with participating in courses.
→ For Registration details and deadlines, see below 
Practical Python for Beginners
Starting 18 March 2024
Practical Python for beginners: a Biochemist’s guide aims to teach the core skills which underlie the application of Python to complex, real-world research problems.
Following the course, the successful learner will be able to:
- Explain the rationale for scripting
- Use the IPython command line as a calculator and to assign variables
- Use the basic data types and some simple functions
- Create lists and select elements from them
- Explain what a library is, import a Python library and use functions it contains
- Read biochemical data from a file into a Python
- Understand computing concepts such as what is meant by the working directory, absolute and relative paths and be able to apply these concepts to data import
- Analyse and visualise biochemical data using powerful Python packages such as NumPy, Pandas, Sklearn and Matplotlib
No prior coding experience is required to enrol, and you’ll continue to access the course for a year from its launch date.
More details and registration link: https://www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=100135&ef_sel_menu=1275&eventID=192
Registration fees
Members residents in low-income countries: FREE
Student members: £30
Early career members: £48
Full members: £60
Non-members: £96
*Please note, VAT will be added to registrations from the UK.
Registration will close at 16:00 on Friday 22 March 2024
R for Biochemists 201
Starting 20 May 2024
R for Biochemists 201 teaches participants the key concepts of tidy data, about good coding practice such as developing reproducible workflows, and how to create more complex data visualisations in R.
The course is made up of four modules:
- Bar charts and beyond
- Calculating and adding p-values
- Using R Markdown (to write reproducible reports with R)*
- Functions & Packages
It is advised that learners enrolled on R for Biochemists 201 have completed R for Biochemists 101 and have since practiced the code taught in that course.
More details and registration link: https://www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=100639&eventID=193
Registration fees
Members residents in low-income countries: FREE
Student members: £30
Early career members: £48
Full members: £60
Non-members: £96
*Please note, VAT will be added to registrations from the UK.
Registration will close at 16:00 on 24 May 2024.
*Unrelated to the Biochemical Society courses, but for those with some familiarity with R who just want to learn more about writing reproducible reports using R Markdown, the following resources are open and provide quite a nice introduction: