Dear colleague, Last year the first Dutch Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) users meeting in Utrecht was a great success with more than 80 attendees and a lively discussion on all the ins and outs of this revolutionary new technology that affects many field in biology and medicine. Therefore, we have decided to broaden the initiative and to organize a follow-up to the 2008 meeting, now with the aim to include colleagues from Belgium and Luxemburg. In close collaboration with NBIC we are now organizing the second Benelux (Belgium-Netherlands-Luxemburg) NGS users meeting. The meeting will be held on July 7th 2009, at the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht. At this one-day annual meeting we expect approximately 200 scientists involved/interested in NGS to meet and discuss developments in the field, with a strong focus on practical issues like protocols, bioinformatics issues etc. In addition, a number of plenary presentations will be given by leading scientists in the field of NGS. This users meeting aims to bring together all scientist in the Netherlands that are working with any of the next-generation sequencing platforms, to exchange experiences, identify complementary interests and common problems and to enhance interaction between individuals at all levels. The primary focus of this meeting is on user experiences and networking, rather than scientific breakthroughs. The symposium is free for anyone interested, although registration <http://h094.niob.knaw.nl/symposium/NGS/register.html> is required. You are invited to submit a brief abstract to qualify for selection for oral presentation in one of the dedicated parallel sessions. Please check the website (http://h094.niob.knaw.nl/symposium/NGS) for more details on the program, location, and registration. To express the breadth of the application scope, the meeting will be supported and co-organised by the leading genomics initiatives in the Netherlands, including the Netherlands Cancer Genomics Centre (CGC), The Centre for BioSystems Genomics, the Centre for Medical Systems Biology (CMSB) and the Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, all research centres under the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI: www.genomics.nl). Please forward this email to anyone who might be interested in this meeting. For more information, please contact Edwin Cuppen (e.cuppen@niob.knaw.nl), Marc van Driel (marc.van.driel@nbic.nl), or Joris Veltman (j.veltman@antrg.umcn.nl) On behalf of the organizers: Dr. Marc van Driel Bioinformatics Coordinator NBIC ************************************** NBIC Office Phone: +31 (0)24 36 19500 E-mail: office@nbic.nl Website: www.nbic.nl Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre 260 NBIC P.O. Box 9101 6500 HB Nijmegen Fax: +31 (0)24 36 19395 Visiting address: Geert Grooteplein 28, Route 260 6525 GA Nijmegen