1. Who are we? Laboratory of Biodiversity, Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture (IMBBA), Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

2. What do we do? We perform research on marine biodiversity, that is, research at all (possible) levels of biological organization and at all (possible scales) of observation; Scientific fields: (cyber-)taxonomy, population dynamics and ecology, community ecology, functional ecology, community genetics,microbial ecology, microbial genetics, environmental monitoring, biogeography, bioinformatics and biodiversity informatics; Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

3. What is marine biodiversity? The term marine biodiversity includes the overall biological diversity of the Seas and Oceans. It refers to all levels of the biological organization and all scales of observation. Traditionally, it is recognized in three levels: genetic, species and ecosystem diversity. Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

4. Why marine biodiversity IS important? Marine biodiversity provides human kind with a series of goods (e.g. minerals, fuel, food, pharmaceuticals, etc.) and services (e.g. carbon sequestration, biogeochemical cycles, oxygen production, biomass production, etc.), which are not only important for human survival but they also make the planet a habitable place to live on. Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

5. What is the value of what we do? We create knowledge, data, information, tools and services for the study of marine biodiversity. This is very important in order to understand, protect and sustainably exploit our biodiversity resources in the Mediterranean. Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

6. Human potential, current projects and budget - ViBRANT, VECTORS, MARBIGEN, MAPMED, EMBOS, EUROMARINE, CIGESMED, SYNTHESYS3, EOL, EMODNET, LifeWatchGreece, ….and others to come... -Overall 12 people, including students (to be 20 in a month) - More than 5 MEuros - Collaboration with more than 100 labs and institutions all over Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

7. Our challenges for Blue Hackathon - Two on citizen science - One on literature data mining - Multiple on the environmental quality monitoring tools Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013