Welcome

Join us in person or online March 11-13, 2026, for the nf-core hackathon! 🗓️

Key dates
  • November 2025: Project proposals open
  • February 2nd 2026: Site registration opens
  • February 9th 2026: Registration opens
  • March 11th - 13th 2026: Hackathon

To get a feel for how the event will work, check out the similar style hackathons that we held in 2024 and 2025.

Hybrid format: In-person hubs and online

This hackathon follows a hybrid format with in-person local hubs and online participation.

Important: Choosing your project

Each project will be designated for a specific location: either a particular in-person hub or online.

Project participation:

  • Projects at in-person hubs are primarily intended for attendees at that specific hub
  • Online projects are designed for remote participants
  • Project leaders will be present at their designated location and may not be available across sites

When choosing a project:

  • If attending an in-person hub, choose a project designated for your hub
  • If participating online, choose from projects marked as “online”
  • Cross-site projects may be coordinated by project and site leads, but require additional planning due to time zones and logistics

Online

Online participation allows you to join from anywhere:

  • Core team members, maintainers, and other community leaders will be present throughout the event
  • Dedicated online platform and communication tools for collaboration (more details coming soon)
  • Project leaders designated as “online” will be available to work with remote participants

In-person local hubs

In-person local hubs allow you to join in person:

  • Hosted at various locations around the world
  • Sponsored by Seqera (as in previous years)
  • Projects at each hub will have designated leaders present on-site
  • Provide space for face-to-face collaboration and networking
Tips for cross-site collaboration

If project and site leads agree to coordinate a cross-site project, here are some recommendations:

  • Spanning time zones can help teams work like a relay, with brief morning/evening overlaps for handoffs rather than working simultaneously
  • Booking a dedicated room at your local site might be needed for video calls
  • Having more than one person doing the same project at your site is highly recommended
  • Large projects can be divided into focused sub-projects, with each site owning and leading a specific component

Registration

Registration details coming soon!

Schedule

We’ll keep the main schedule intentionally light to accommodate different time zones and allow for flexibility. We’ll have daily wrap-ups and social events planned.

  • Daily wrap-up sessions (times TBD)
  • Quiz social events
  • more details coming soon..

Projects

We’ll work in projects during the hackathon. Projects can be anything from:

  • Adding new features to existing pipelines
  • Adding and improving components (modules / subworkflows)
  • Improving the website and nf-core tooling
  • Creating entirely new pipelines
  • Discussion and planning community initiatives
  • Working on special interest group topics
  • …anything else

You can bring your own favourite topic or choose from a list of open issues in the community. Each project has a lead person who can point you in the right direction.

If you are joining online, reach out to the online project leaders.

Submit a project

If you have an idea for a project that you think would be fun to do during the hackathon, please add it to the website by submitting a pull-request to the nf-core/website repository.

You need to add a new markdown file to the sites/main-site/src/content/hackathon-projects/hackathon-march-2026 directory.

Important: When submitting your project, specify its primary location (a specific in-person hub or “online”). This helps participants choose projects that match where they’ll be attending.

See existing files for examples, if you’re unsure about anything please ask in Slack or in the pull-request.

Registered projects

online

Docs v2
Github user christopher-hakkaart
Github user jfy133

Hosting a local hub

We are now accepting registrations from organisers interested in hosting local hackathon hubs!

Anyone is welcome to host a hub - you don’t need to be an expert or have prior experience with hackathons.

What you’ll need:

  • Access to a dedicated space for the duration of the event
  • Decent Wi-FI and a bunch of extension cables
  • Enthusiasm!

Any space will do: be it a meeting room for 5-10 people through to larger spaces to accommodate more.

In previous years, Seqera has sponsored pizza. We’re not yet sure how much funding will be available in 2026 or what shape it will take, so please don’t plan around this.

Submit a hub

There is no closing date for local site registration, however the sooner you register your interest the better. We use the site names in the main registration form and it really helps with planning. Also if we know about your site we’ll have more time to help advertise and get folks to join!

The steps to host a hub are:

  1. Open a pull-request to add your hub-specific page to this website
  2. Advertise (locally and online)
  3. Ensure you have one (or more) project leader available to your hub
  4. Act as a contact point with the hackathon organisers during the event

If you have any questions, jump into the #hackathon-mar-2026 channel on the nf-core Slack and we’ll be happy to help.

Registered hubs

Registered local hubs will be listed here once available.

Social activities

During the hackathon, we will have a bit of light-hearted fun and games for you to play! Special prizes are up for grabs for the winners!

  • Online quiz
  • Hackathon bingo
  • More coming soon…

Pre-hackathon checklist

Ensure you have read/signed up/joined/installed the following resources before the hackathon.

Hackathon playlist

A community Spotify playlist was created during the first ever nf-core hackathon, and many songs have been added since. Feel free to tune in and enjoy the somewhat eclectic mix!

nf-core/hackathon playlist
On this page