Connecting data and expertise: a new alliance for biodiversity knowledge.
Donald Hobern, Brigitte Baptiste, Kyle Copas, Robert Guralnick, Andrea Hahn, Edwin van Huis, Eun-Shik Kim, Melodie McGeoch, Isayvani Naicker, Laetitia Navarro, Daniel Noesgaard, Michelle Price, Andrew Rodrigues, Dmitry Schigel, Carolyn A Sheffield, John Wieczorek
Author Information
Donald Hobern: Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat, Copenhagen, Denmark Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat Copenhagen Denmark. ORCID
Brigitte Baptiste: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Bogotá, Colombia Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt Bogotá Colombia.
Kyle Copas: Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat, Copenhagen, Denmark Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat Copenhagen Denmark. ORCID
Robert Guralnick: Vertnet, Florida, United States of America Vertnet Florida United States of America.
Andrea Hahn: Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat, Copenhagen, Denmark Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat Copenhagen Denmark.
Edwin van Huis: Naturalis, Amsterdam, Netherlands Naturalis Amsterdam Netherlands.
Eun-Shik Kim: Kookmin University, Seoul, South Korea Kookmin University Seoul South Korea.
Melodie McGeoch: Monash University, Clayton, Australia Monash University Clayton Australia.
Isayvani Naicker: African Academy of Sciences, Nairobi, Kenya African Academy of Sciences Nairobi Kenya.
Laetitia Navarro: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Leipzig, Germany German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Leipzig Germany.
Daniel Noesgaard: Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat, Copenhagen, Denmark Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat Copenhagen Denmark. ORCID
Michelle Price: Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève Geneva Switzerland. ORCID
Andrew Rodrigues: Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat, Copenhagen, Denmark Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat Copenhagen Denmark.
Dmitry Schigel: Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat, Copenhagen, Denmark Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat Copenhagen Denmark. ORCID
Carolyn A Sheffield: Smithsonian Libraries/Biodiversity Heritage Library, Washington, DC, United States of America Smithsonian Libraries/Biodiversity Heritage Library Washington, DC United States of America.
John Wieczorek: VertNet, Bariloche, Argentina VertNet Bariloche Argentina. ORCID
There has been major progress over the last two decades in digitising historical knowledge of biodiversity and in making biodiversity data freely and openly accessible. Interlocking efforts bring together international partnerships and networks, national, regional and institutional projects and investments and countless individual contributors, spanning diverse biological and environmental research domains, government agencies and non-governmental organisations, citizen science and commercial enterprise. However, current efforts remain inefficient and inadequate to address the global need for accurate data on the world's species and on changing patterns and trends in biodiversity. Significant challenges include imbalances in regional engagement in biodiversity informatics activity, uneven progress in data mobilisation and sharing, the lack of stable persistent identifiers for data records, redundant and incompatible processes for cleaning and interpreting data and the absence of functional mechanisms for knowledgeable experts to curate and improve data. Recognising the need for greater alignment between efforts at all scales, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) convened the second Global Biodiversity Informatics Conference (GBIC2) in July 2018 to propose a coordination mechanism for developing shared roadmaps for biodiversity informatics. GBIC2 attendees reached consensus on the need for a global alliance for biodiversity knowledge, learning from examples such as the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) and the open software communities under the Apache Software Foundation. These initiatives provide models for multiple stakeholders with decentralised funding and independent governance to combine resources and develop sustainable solutions that address common needs. This paper summarises the GBIC2 discussions and presents a set of 23 complementary ambitions to be addressed by the global community in the context of the proposed alliance. The authors call on all who are responsible for describing and monitoring natural systems, all who depend on biodiversity data for research, policy or sustainable environmental management and all who are involved in developing biodiversity informatics solutions to register interest at https://biodiversityinformatics.org/ and to participate in the next steps to establishing a collaborative alliance. The supplementary materials include brochures in a number of languages (English, Arabic, Spanish, Basque, French, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese). These summarise the need for an and call for collaboration in its establishment.
