Abstract
In order to preserve the variety of life on Earth, we must understand it better. Biodiversity research is at a pivotal point with research projects generating data at an ever increasing rate. Structuring, aggregating, linking and processing these data in a meaningful way is a major challenge. The systematic application of information management and engineering technologies in the study of biodiversity (biodiversity informatics) help transform data to knowledge. However, concerted action is required to be taken by existing e-infrastructures to develop and adopt common standards, provisions for interoperability and avoid overlapping in functionality. This would result in the unification of the currently fragmented landscape that restricts European biodiversity research from reaching its full potential. The overarching goal of this COST Action is to coordinate existing research and capacity building efforts, through a bottom-up trans-disciplinary approach, by unifying biodiversity informatics communities across Europe in order to support the long-term vision of modelling biodiversity on earth. BioUnify will: 1. specify technical requirements, evaluate and improve models for efficient data and workflow storage, sharing and re-use, within and between different biodiversity communities; 2. mobilise taxonomic, ecological, genomic and biomonitoring data generated and curated by natural history collections, research networks and remote sensing sources in Europe; 3. leverage results of ongoing biodiversity informatics projects by identifying and developing functional synergies on individual, group and project level; 4. raise technical awareness and transfer skills between biodiversity researchers and information technologists; 5. formulate a viable roadmap for achieving the long-term goals for European biodiversity informatics, which ensures alignment with global activities and translates into efficient biodiversity policy.
Highlights
The overarching goal of this COST Action is to coordinate existing research and capacity building efforts, through a bottom-up trans-disciplinary approach, by unifying biodiversity informatics communities across Europe in order to support the long-term vision of modelling biodiversity on earth
Preserve and process the increasing volume of biodiversity data? How do we identify gaps in available data or re-combine existing datasets for use across different biodiversity disciplines? And how do we facilitate the entire data lifecycle from generation to publication and reuse?
Following a hybrid model of delivering training, this Task will catalogue already developed training modules (e.g. CETAF, DEST, SYNTHESYS, ViBRANT) that aim at transferring specific informatics skills to biodiversity researchers and summarise available diplomas related to biodiversity informatics in existing higher education structures
Summary
Following evaluation by three external reviewers the proposal received an average mark of 29.33/40 and was subsequently not selected to be funded by the COST Association. The key points are presented for each of the evaluation sections: State of the Art, Relevance and Timeliness, Feasibility, Risk level, Scientific and/or Societal Impact, and Timeframe. The authors did not receive permission, from the COST Association, to publish the full text of the reviews
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