The i3S Bioinformatics platform was created in 2022 to stimulate and support biomedical research in the field of bioinformatics, particularly on next-generation sequencing technologies. The platform runs a continuously growing list of protocols frequently used in the fields of (but not limited to) genomics, transcriptomics, arrays, and phylogenetics. For each protocol, information is given on what the user is supposed to provide, the type of results that will be obtained, and all technical details on how the analyses are performed. All this information is available on a website, specifically designed for this purpose.

To ensure reproducibility as well as long-term support of the analyses, the service is entirely based on the use of Docker images. The development of the Docker images, as well as the implementation of the protocols, are performed in close collaboration with the pegi3S Bioinformatics Docker Images Project, one of the services of the Portuguese ELIXIR node.

At present, the i3S Bioinformatics platform is free for i3S researchers. The amount of computational time used by each research group will be, however, recorded, to ensure that every group gets a fair share of the available computational time.