ISCC-meeting July 5, 2013

Current Status Coordinator from Nov. 2011: NTNU University Museum Memorandum of Understanding with 16 institutions in Norway (but not all active) 23 active researchers Increased activity over the last 2 years due to: – Increased funding through the Norwegian Taxonomy Initiative (NTI): ~2 mill NOK per year (CAD 345K) – Increased in-kind contributions from university museums – Practical workshops held (fully funded by NTI) – Specific NorBOL-projects/tasks at each university museum ~3400 species, nearly 10K barcodes

NTNU University Museum, Trondheim: – Barcoding material from inventories funded by NTI – Workshops Natural History Museum, Oslo: – Scientific collections (insects, vertebrates) University Museum of Bergen: – Marine invertebrates (mainly from large inventories) Tromsø University Museum: – Vascular plants and fungi of northern Norway Main Collaborators

Main Goals 20K species, 200K specimens by 2018 (if funding is granted by Research Council) More active collaborators (in Norway) Strengthening of network and capacity building International knowledge transfer Public outreach

Past Barriers to Progress Lack of funding for technical assistance Lack of knowledge about advantages of DNA barcoding General slowness for accepting new methodology and ideas (especially by funders) Some fear of sharing data before publication Little focus on resources for taxonomy

Future opportunities Nature management authorities are increasingly attracted to DNA barcoding – BOLD volume and quality – Environmental barcoding Take advantage of NorBOL, iBOL and BOLD reputation to involve more active contributors Possible full-scale funding from the Research Council of Norway? Final decision October 29, 2013 International collaboration

Future Challenges Speed of populating the barcode library – Resources for technical assistance (tissue sampling, photographing, databasing) – Taxonomic expertise – Analytical costs Prioritizing taxonomic groups or focus areas Progress depending on few individuals

Collaborators in NorBOL