The 1st East Asia Bioinformatics Network was held in Busan, South Korea during the 5th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB2005) at the Korean BIOINFO'05 Congress. Sponsored by the host country Korea, all ASEAN countries were invited to send their official delegates, as coordinated by the ASEAN Secretariat and the SubCommittee on Biotechnology (SCB) of the ASEAN Committee on Science and Technology (COST). Despite the absence of a few countries, the meeting was a success, and set in motion the framework for cooperation amongst ASEAN countries and East Asia countries in the area of bioinformatics, bioinformation and computational biology.

As a project proposed as one of the outcomes of the East Asia Summit between northern Asian nations namely China, Japan and Korea, with ASEAN, the EABN promotes scientific cooperation and collaboration in the life sciences amongst East Asian countries, focussing on bioinformatics, bioinformation and computational biology.

The 1st EABN has achieved greater understanding of the field amongst ASEAN participants and Korea. The 2nd EABN successfully gained the participation of most ASEAN countries and Korea with observers from Pakistan to participate in building the bioinformation infrastructure of East Asia by meeting to discuss key issues.

The 3rd EABN will build on these successful outcomes to report on the progress of projects initiated in the 2nd EABN meeting, and to discuss new project initiatives and review strategic plans.

Provocative topics will be discussed. Thought leadership amongst speakers, panelists and the audience will be encouraged.