What is the program?
The Australian Biodiversity Data Mobilisation Program (ABDMP) provides financial support to Australian institutions to digitise and prepare existing biodiversity data for open access through the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA).
Australia holds vast collections of biodiversity records in museum drawers, field notebooks, spreadsheets, and databases, that are not yet publicly accessible. This program helps institutions make that data available for science, conservation, and decision making.
Applications for 2026 are now closed
Thank you to everyone who submitted an application for the 2026 round. Applications closed on 24 April 2026 and all applicants will be notified of outcomes in June-July 2026.
If you’re interested in applying in a future round, subscribe to receive our ALA email notifications, this is where we send out our newsletters and will announce future rounds. You can also follow us on our social media channels to stay up to date.
Download the 2026 Program Information Guide for full details on eligibility, funding, and the application process for the 2026 round.
In the media
The ALA’s Data Mobilisaiton Program has been featured in a number of media outlets. We’re proud to see the program’s impact recognised.
- Turning over a new leaf: Macquarie’s rare plant collection goes digital
- Island insects: a lifetime of discovery goes digital – CSIRO
2026 project timeline
- 24 April 2026 – Applications close at 5pm (AEST)
- June-July 2026 – All applicants notified of outcomes
- July-August 2026 – Successful applicants and ALA finalise data-sharing agreements
- 30 June 2027 – Data published to the ALA in Darwin Core Standard
Past funded projects
- Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions of Western Australia – Digitisation of the Curtin University orphaned herbarium collection
- Macquarie University, School of Natural Sciences – Digitising the Downing Herbarium
- Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory – Mobilising Northern Australian Fish and Terrestrial Vertebrate Tissues
- Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery – Digitising and mobilising QVMAG complete Botany Collection
- Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery – Addressing knowledge gaps in Tasmanian insects
- Western Sydney University, School of Science – Mobilising the Agrotis
- Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) – Contributing over 260,000 records from remote and historically under-surveyed regions such as the Kimberley and Cape York, focusing on threatened species and restricted-range endemics.
- Museums Victoria – Digitising a significant Click Beetle collection, adding approximately 6,000 records and 99 new species to the ALA.
- Royal Botanical Gardens Victoria – Mobilising data from approximately 1,800 Australian macrofungi specimens, including a selection of field images.
- University of Melbourne – Digitising non-vascular bryophyte and liverwort specimens collected over the last 20 years, contributing contemporary taxon distribution and habitat occupancy data for under-represented taxa in the ALA.
- West Australian Museum – Contributing a significant collection of 3,500–4,000 trapdoor spiders, alongside extensive field notes to enhance understanding of these species.
- National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria – Mobilising more than 5,000 specimen-based occurrence data records from Australian macroalgae.
- Western Australian Museum with Kit Prendergast – Mobilising thousands of native bee data records from physical specimens collected in southwestern WA, representing more than 200 bee species.
- Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, South Australia – Making >30,000 bryophyte and >6,000 lichen records available to the ALA through digitisation of physical collection labels.
- D’Estrees Entomology and Science Services – Delivery of 7,000–10,000 insect occurrence records from Kangaroo Island, focused on underrepresented taxa.
- Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery – Mobilising more than 15,000 invertebrate species records representing Tasmanian spiders, echinoderms, cnidarians and annelids.
- Biosecurity Queensland, Department of Primary Industries – Delivering validated specimen-based records for Australian collected true fruit flies.
- New South Wales Department of Primary Industries – Mobilising plant pest and disease data from the NSW Biosecurity Collections (~600,000 records).
- South Australia Museum – Mobilising the South Australia Museum’s Australian Biological Tissues Collection of 39 donated frozen tissue collections of Australian freshwater fishes (around 90% of all known species and ~46,000 records).
- Queensland Museum Network – Mobilising and enhancing data from the Cribb Australian Fish Trematode Collection (>20,000 records of >1,000 fish species).
- Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery – Mobilising wildlife molecular and tissue data (>8,500 sample vials and 1,650 formalin-fixed specimens in the histology collection).
- Edith Cowan University – Mobilising plant and fungi data from the Robert Brown Herbarium.
- Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority – Mobilising data in the Kings Park and Botanic Garden Herbarium collection (18,200 specimens).