ISBA partners with affiliate researcher communities and working groups to support education, community-building, and research in biomolecular archaeology.
If you would like your community to become an affiliate of ISBA, please see the instructions here.
For a list of ISBA funded or supported events and other contributions for the affiliate groups, please see here.
Affiliates
Standards, Precautions, and Advances in Ancient Metagenomics (SPAAM) Community: a community of researchers focusing on ancient metagenomics. SPAAM supports open science initiatives to find solutions to common challenges and obstacles in the field. SPAAM sponsors collaborative projects, summer schools, a Slack channel, and a yearly workshop. Find out more here.
Palaeoproteomics And Archaeology, Society for Techniques and Advances (PAASTA) Community: An ECR-led community of researchers working with palaeoproteomics, the study of ancient proteins. An open and supportive environment committed to promoting and facilitating collaborative and open science! Find out more here.
Human Ancient DNA, Ancestry, and Mobility (HAAM) Community: an open community of international researchers interested in studying human population genetics, ancestry & mobility through ancient/modern DNA. HAAM plans to find common solutions to small and big challenges encountered worldwide, plan summer schools, and promote collaborative projects. Find out more here.
Lipid Analysis for Archaeological Research Development (LAARD) Community: a community of international researchers focused on the analysis of ancient lipids resulting from human activities. LAARD’s goal is to cultivate spaces for open and cooperative science to overcome common challenges in the field. Find out more here.
The Animal aDNA Research Community (AaRC) aims to bring together early career researchers applying genomic approaches to ancient animal remains and nucleotide-preserving material.
By providing an inclusive environment, AaRC will promote knowledge exchange and collaboration between researchers regardless of their institutional or disciplinary background; facilitate the establishment of community-led standards, best practices and resources; and provide a platform for the sharing of research and knowledge.
AaRC is envisioned to be primarily run by and for early career researchers (graduate student, post-doctoral researchers, and early group leaders), but researchers of all career stages are welcome to join and participate in the community.
AaRC’s mission is to provide:
- Scientific advancement (via community-driven projects to advance the field)
- Training and support (through resources and courses to facilitate knowledge sharing and quality of research)
- Networking (by facilitating collaborations and assisting each other) for the animal ancient DNA community.”
Find out more here.
Initiatives
MINAS Working Group: a community project to develop a metadata reporting standard designed specifically for ancient DNA data through the Minimum Standards about any Sequence (MIxS) inititative of the Genomics Standards Consortium (GSC).
Current Issues in Ancient DNA Research (CIADR): an international group of researchers who are practitioners of ancient DNA research. The CIADR group convenes virtually several times a year in order to discuss pertinent issues in ancient DNA research and strengthen bonds across the research community. For more information contact the CIADR organizers: Lara CAssidy (cassidl1@tcd.ie), Mateja Hajdinjak (mateja.hajdinak@crick.ac.uk), Kendra Sirak (kendra_sirak@hms.harvard.edu), Viviane Slon (viviane@tauex.tau.ac.il)