Final Call For Abstracts & Funding: Joint Biobanking Conference 2025

This is a final call for abstracts for the GGBN / ISBER Joint Biobanking Conference 2025 – all those who are interested have until the 8 August 2025 to submit their abstracts and join the discussion at the biggest biobanking event in Africa.

The conference, a joint effort by the Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN) and the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER), will be held at the spectacular Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Town, South Africa, from 29 September – 3 October 2025.

Please note: There is limited funding available for BBSA Community members to attend the conference – and preference will be given for those who will be presenting at the conference, whether that be for a talk, a poster presentation, or a lightning talk. If you’ve registered for the conference already, and would like to discuss funding, please contact us at info@bbsa.org.za or n.kruger@sanbi.org.za.

Talk Topics

We’re particularly keen to have attendees give talks on any of the following topics:

• Biodiversity-rich regions of the world
• ABS loans and shipping
• Data and database challenges
• Best practices for biobanking (standards, sustainability and innovation)
• Biobanking for a sustainable future (environmental contaminant studies and One Health)
• Pathways to standardization in biobanking (accreditation and credentialing)

Poster Presentations

Abstracts can also be submitted for posters – any topics that fit the Biobanks Africa programme and/or themes would be welcome. With this year’s conference theme, “Where worlds align: biodiversity and human biobanks. Same, but different”, we’re bringing together experts in human and biodiversity biobanking to talk shop, share solutions and discuss future efforts.

Lightning Talks

Lightning talk topics can include any from the conference programme. In addition, this session provides participants the opportunity to share information on their biobanks / molecular collections, including facilities and infrastructure, interoperability, address issues related to long-term sustainability, address challenges around sample and data quality. Speakers are welcome to share information about their biobanks, the challenges they’ve faced, the successes they’ve had, and more.

Want to join the fun? Keen to contribute? Submit your abstracts now.

And if you’d like to know more, just visit the Joint Biobanking Conference website: https://biobanksafrica2025.org/ 

Still have questions? Just drop us an email at info@bbsa.org.za and we’ll see what we can do. not to worry.