Birth of DigiOmica

There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

Isaac Asimov

The growth and inter-/multidisciplinarity of omics motivated the birth of the DigiOmica to answer the growing interest in using molecular technologies to understand better how living systems work at molecular level.

The DigiOmica partners that have shown interest in omics-related educational opportunities are institutions employing teams of researchers in various subfields – from environmental sciences to molecular biology and education. They have combined their expertise to work towards creating a specialized methodology with blended learning approaches to be applied in higher education.

The idea for the DigiOmica digital platform met the needs and demands of higher education to support the circular transition to the education driven Industrial revolution 4.0 (EDU 4.0). The DigiOmica platform is intended to host a novel higher education curriculum which aims at changing the learning environment with a focus on practical and concept-based methods.

The innovative multilingual blended content of academic course supports interdisciplinarity, as it includes all modes of learning based on omics data as:

• It provides a snapshot of gene and protein expression and metabolite patterns, which can enable in-depth insight into how tested organisms cope with environmental toxicants and to relate these molecular changes to ecological and health outcomes.
• It integrates omics knowledge with digital learning approaches in the DigiOmica curriculum, which foresees the educational prospects related to rapid introduction of green and innovation policies in Bulgaria, Spain, and Türkiye.

DigiOmica Meeting Global Priorities

To meet the priorities in the European and global agenda, the DigiOmica addresses industrial and educational transformation through supporting digital readiness, resilience and capacity in order to:

Support excellence in EDUCATION by

• Bringing digital learning technologies and open information to university students to enable them to
  • grasp concepts more quickly and thoroughly,
  • connect theory and application,
  • learn more readily.
• Rewarding excellence in learning, teaching and skills development.
• Improving instructional techniques.
• Leveraging the instructor’s time.
• Facilitating knowledge sharing.

Enrich growth in SOCIETY by

• Supporting environment preservation and the fight against climate change.
• Building a bridge between digital technology and environmental omics.
• Helping to create more sustainable and conscious communities.

Grounded on these key concepts for the modernization of teaching in higher education in the light of education driven Industrial revolution 4.0, the DigiOmica effort intends to bring together technology and environmental omics by introducing and integrating applications (involving techniques and methods supporting productivity and collaboration, team focus, processing/search and collecting/organizing, 3D visualization tools, etc.) to assist the digital integration of the educational resources’ design, academic practice, infrastructure, and the teaching and learning methods.

DigiOmica Addressing Emerging Needs

The DigiOmica partners have identified the following needs to be satisfied:

• Access to knowledge: the DigiOmica initiative mitigates risks and reduces mistakes by building technical expertise in the targets to provide them with the necessary experience and networking opportunities.
• Effectiveness: the DigiOmica partners create appropriate products and services to enrich educational opportunities in omics-related applications.
• Efficiency: the DigiOmica methods reduce costs related to delivery of educational opportunities to avoid duplication in efforts.
• Innovation: the DigiOmica strategy develops new ways of addressing old issues and complex challenges.
• Human resources development: the DigiOmica methodology enhances professional skills and competencies of the target groups.
• Long-term stability and impact: the DigiOmica long-term efforts will strive for greater outreach to support sustainable development.
• Reputation and credibility: the DigiOmica partnership agreements reflect the right of each partner to achieve specific and common goals.

The DigiOmica project addresses the identified demands through:

• Enhancing the skill setand the long-term recruitment goals in environmental omics to promote the digitally re-skilled workpower.
• Upgrading the tuition practiceof academic professionals with novel mentoring and communication skills.
• Promoting the progressof high-performing digital education by enhancing academic professionals’ competencies through e-media and tools.
• Fostering the target groups’ abilitiesto elaborate and deliver high-quality educational content through user-friendly e-platform and tools.
• Delivering advanced digital skillsalong with appropriate instruction manuals and guidelines to promote digital literacy and transformation through education.
• Encouraging the positive imageof higher education and R&D in environmental omics by offering educational possibilities to their staff.
• Helping the institutions to gain recognitiondue to favourable publicity, improved public relations, and promotional activities.
• Support the target groups’ ideas, skills, and productivityby encouraging them to explore new viewpoints, discover achievements of omics technologies, and better understand the educational perspectives.
• Focusing on graduates as potential employeesin research and industry by offering them knowledge and skills to enhance their performance with work-related experience.
• Raising awareness of employersto offer potential employees career choices based on newly adopted knowledge and skills.
• Exploit its own potentialto answer the challenges imposed by the rapid transition to higher education in the digital world.

DigiOmica Defining Achievable Objectives

The DigiOmica project answers the emerging need for digital transformation of higher education by introducing knowledge in integrated omics for environmental sustainability to foster the circular transition to Industry 4.0.

The path to its main goal – introducing an innovative educational curriculum based on ICT, molecular life science, and national and European qualification frameworks – passes through a number of preparatory steps including:

• Increasing the activities and practices of the DigiOmica partners to expand the community of green environment.
• Building the capacity of organizations to work transnationally and across sectors to unite the environmental omics community around a joint vision.
• Addressing shared needs and priorities of education and training to improve connections to the job market.
• Enabling transformation and change at all levels to start systemic and lasting change in education in environmental omics.

As a result, the DigiOmica education curriculum delivered in a personalized and learner-centred manner offers transparency and recognition of the knowledge, skills, and qualifications, especially in the context of intracountry and transborder mobility.

The organization of DigiOmica learning content as Units of Learning Outcomes (ULOs), each having specific descriptors (knowledge – skills – responsibility/autonomy) and graded with ECTS points to comply with the ENQA/EQAR standards, contributes to its integration. The ULOs structured in personalized Customized Learning Pathways designed for the target groups through EQF/NQF/HE principles application, lead to broader and easier recognition of the adopted competencies.

An essential aspect of DigiOmica is the vital role of university teachers as problem-setters, masters, consultants, and analysts in higher education. To tackle the needs for excellence and specific digital skills there, DigiOmica develops a Catalogue focused on the best pedagogical and ICT-based practices.

Students also have their role in the learning process as learners, collaborators, and team members. To help them increase their abilities to learn skilfully and effectively as related to the knowledge and skills they acquire and the learning process they master, DigiOmica creates a Student Toolkit.

DigiOmica Aiming at Relevant Targets

A document survey was conducted about the key issues, current skills, knowledge level, and the necessary educational formats to structure the educational curriculum with respect to the needs of the target groups of:

• Academic professionals(teachers, mentors, supervisors),
• (Under/post)graduates(BSc, MSc, and Ph.D. students), and
• Stakeholders(post-doctoral researchers and research associates) which will shape the future research and innovation strategies for environmental omics.

The target groups demand innovative education in environmental omics through digital technologies to further their careers. However, a number of weaknesses has been registered in digital technology implementation such as:

• Shortage of courses in bioinformatics
• Poor knowledge and skills in informatics and math by biologists
• Scarce understanding of end-use applications by mathematicians and software engineers
• competence gap between computer science and biological sciences.

These weaknesses are addressed by the innovative ICT-based environmental omics curriculum aimed at contributing to the improvement of higher education by introducing digital tools. It gives an advantage for employability and economic growth in the partner countries. Thus, the DigiOmica targets benefit from:

• The networkof universities, colleges and R&D organizations.
• The concept for dual educationwhich links theory with work experience to target professional settings.
• Involvement in the blended learning scheme of the DigiOmica curriculum based on the EQF/NQF/ECTS system.
• Wide perspectivesfor innovative education in environmental omics.
• Insights into rapid, top-level educational achievements in compliance with the principles of circular economyand the perspectives of the education driven Industry 4.0.