Reproducible FAIR+ Workflows and the CCWL

Dr. Pjotr Prins and Arun Isaac will present their Concise Common Workflow Language (CCWL). CCWL makes code reusable and adaptable across a variety of software and hardware environment while following FAIR+ (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable, and Computable) principles. They will also discuss their prototype COVID-19 cloud setup, with a hands-on demonstration of the universal software deployment system Guix, part of the open-source operating system GNU.

CWL is of particular interest to cancer researchers because it provides a standardized machine-readable semantics model for running workflows on virtual environments. Attendees will learn how CCWL, as a CWL compiler, works with a package manager like GNU Guix to improve reproducibility and validation of bioinformatics workflows.

This webinar is part of the monthly Containers and Workflow Interest Group (CWIG) webinar series. CWIG brings together data scientists, bioinformaticians, computer scientists, and researchers to learn more about cloud computing and container technologies, workflows, and pipelines that could drive cancer data science.

The webinar series features a variety of presenters from across NIH, industry, and academia. Though cancer research is the focus of the series, unrelated data science and cloud computing topics are still welcome. In the last year, the CWIG webinar speakers have discussed:

• NIH cloud programs like the NCI Cloud Resources and NIH STRIDES.
• commercial cloud platforms for biomedical data storage and computing.
• pipelines and tools for deep learning and various omics analysis.