Home > News > Newsletters > Newsletter December 2009 > The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

Joanne Daly, Chair, Governing Board, GBIF

The Governing Board of GBIF held its 16th meeting in Copenhagen, 6-8 th November. Key issues to note from Meeting and associated activities follow. You can read the Agenda here. Please contact me on joanne.daly@csiro.au if you want further information.

Chair of Governing Board

I was elected incoming Chair of Governing Board. This position is for two years, with a possibility of a second two year term. I cannot be the head of delegation for Australia and as this position has to be filled immediately I have asked John La Salle (Director, Australian National Insect Collection) to replace me to ensure continuity of activities. The delegation can have up to five representatives and it would be advantageous for more than one delegate to attend. Next year’s meeting is in South Korea in early October. Please contact John La Salle if you would like to be included as part of the delegation.

Participation in GBIF Activities

There are many examples in which Australians can participate more broadly to GBIF. Many of these activities are listed on the GBIF website:

  1. Nominate for a position on one of GBIF’s committees or task groups. These become vacant each year. Participation in the broader areas of GBIF activities and biodiversity bioinformatics in general is highly valuable here so that you are known. The Rules and Budget committees are always looking for interested members.
  2. Ebbe Nielsen prize – This ia annual award for promoting excellence in bioninformatics. It is a cash prize to be used at the discretion of the recipient. Australia was awarded this prize through Paul Flemons (Australian Museum).
  3. New funds for PhD and Masters students – GBIF will be commencing some competitive awards to provide supplementary funds of €4000 for post-graduate students.
  4. Participation in Task Groups – these are subcommittees of the Science Committee and are for a fixed time around a particular activity. The head of delegation is asked to nominate people to these task groups. Be willing to be nominated when the calls are made.
  5. Attend the GB meeting as part of the delegation (up to five people) – this can be an excellent networking opportunity. You have to meet your own costs of attending (airfare and accommodation) but it can be well worthwhile. The next meeting is in South Korea in October 2011.
  6. Assist in the region (Asia Pacific) to foster GBIF activities and to build capability
  7. Represent GBIF activities when attending relevant meetings.

Science Committee Reports

Last year the Science Committee changed its structure to move from standing subcommittees to forming task groups around specific activities. Four Task Group Chairs sit on the Science Committee but the members of the task groups are formed de novo for each task. The Head of delegation circulates requests for nominations to these task groups. It is valuable for Australians to have participated in these.

At GB 16, two key reports were received:

a) Discovery and Publishing of Biodiversity Data Resources

http://www.gbif.org/informatics/primary-data/task-groups/dpf-tg/

At E-Biosphere meeting in London in June 09, a group of biodiversity and biodiversity informatics groups and bodies called for the development of ‘an approach to the citation of published data and information services that will enable the impact of electronic data provision and biodiversity informatics to be documented objectively’.

GBIF established a task group earlier in 2009 to make recommendations on how to overcome the barriers to the publication of primary biodiversity data. This is a timely committee be develop the issues on behalf of the global community. The GBIF secretariat is currently developing a ‘Global Biodiversity Resources Discovery System (GBRDS)’.

b) Interim Report of the GBIF Task Group on the Global Strategy and Action Plan for the Digitisation of Natural History Collections

This task group in included an Australian representative, Penny Berents (Australian Museum). One of the draft recommendations of this committee has to be suggest the need to prioritise the development of metadata. It also suggests pilot projects for digitisation in key groups of significance:

  • Cycads
  • Unionids (molluscs)
  • Anopheles
  • Bats
  • Earthworms

It is noted that these groups have relevance that goes beyond their taxonomic significance.

Last modified: December 18, 2009 at 10:33 am