1. Nodes Committee and Regional Work Plans & activities
Hanna Koivula
Hanna Koivula/ IT-team

2. GBIF Strategic Plan
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3. MANDATE OF NODES COMMITTEE Identify and share best practices
Identify [in common] barriers and suggest solutions
Exchange of knowledge, informal partnerships, or longer term interactions between the Nodes
To communicate the Nodes’ requirements to the Science Committee and Secretariat
Recommendations GBIF WP and where individual Nodes can offer work that helps achieve the goals
Helping observers and new participants to achieve benefits and establish a node
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4. Nodes Committee Work Plan / Thematic network
It is recommended that each node should have
Local / National Work Plan
A reporting structure to Head of Delegation and/or funding agency
Nodes Committe Work Plan will be implemented as five task groups that tie together existing work and initiatives forming thematic networks
It is complementary to GBIF Work Plan (implemented by the secretariat)
Offers an entry point for national nodes to join the international community and thematic networks
Each task group should have contact point at GBIFS
Tighten linkages with Sciense Committee and other GBIFS task groups
Concrete deliverables like use-cases, self assesments on different themes, collaboration agreements, project proposals etc…
Intersessional work with online tools:
Community site, google drive, git hub, etc…
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5. TASK GROUP / THEMATIC NETWORK
working methods and goals (for discussion)
Terms of Reference
Leader(s)
Contact point at GBIF Secretariat
Annual Clock
Deliverables
Sign up for the group at community site
Matrix for finding out who could contribute and who needs help
Possible steps or deliverables:
Survey existing resources / expertise
Use-cases & learned lessons
Best practices documentation
Informatics articles
Projects and suitable funding calls (regional?)
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6. Global Nodes Meeting and NSG formed 5 task groups
Biodiversity Informatics Curriculum
Main idea is to define modules for a standard BDI curriculum and Survey existing content, teachers and resources
BDI cookbook (BIFA), BDI training curriculum , TDWG activities
Data quality
Projects in several regions (e.g. Europe and Latin America)
Materials already available [GBIF resources and TDWG]
Nodes portals and tools
ALA and Canadensys collaborations, could be expanded to DQ work-flows
A template to capture uses of data (combined from: Connecting with users and Science-Policy)
The activity is concrete and could be community led, although the use of the template also needs to be supported by the GBIF Secretariat
Also the topic ‘science-policy interface’ could benefit from the template to capture contributions by nodes in the science-policy realms
Promoting open data in private sector
New topic, GBIFS has already started working on
Nodes could bring up more use-cases and lessons learned
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7. OTHER THEMES WORHT PURSUING
Using GBIF taxonomy back bone and tools
Update of the old taxonomy still ongoing
Need better communication and a contact point from GBIFS
Invasive Alien Species
Task Group on Data Fitness for Use in Research on Invasive Alien Species ignited by secretariat
Regional collaboration with EASIN
Regional collaboration with mapping the checklists to GBIF
Funding for nodes
Knowlege exchange should be included in most groups
Discussion about mechanisms to develop new themes is welcome
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8. REGIONAL WORK PLANS (regional themes)
Will be developed in regional meetings (during 2016)
New & existing Regional Work Plans will be streamlied with new GBIF strategic plan
”Way forward” from the regional review
Develop processes and strategies to advance GBIF-related activities within the region
Ensure sustainability and continuity in GBIF-related activities within the region
Strengthen sharing of capacities and resources within the region
Enhance visibility and relevance of GBIF within the region
Promote engagement and expansion of the GBIF network
Preparatory survey template offered to capture region spesific topics and aid planing
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9. REGIONAL PROGRESS REPORTS:
Latin America (regional meeting April 2016)
Active developments to launch data portals based on Canadensys (Colombia, Brazil and Uruguay) and ALA (Costa Rica and Argentina)
GBIF Capacity Enhancement Project is going to be presented by Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Perú and Uruguay to organize a workshop on Plinian Core in the TDWG meeting taking place in December 2016
A workshop on Data Quality and Sample Event Data is going to take place back to back with the regional meeting
Expanding the network: Cuba is preparing its return to GBIF and Ecuador is planning to join also. Representatives of both countries are present in the regional meeting.
Planned activities:
Digitisation, Node portals, Link with IPBES, Biodiversity informatics curriculum
Several HoDs participated to the meeting
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10. Africa (regional meeting intended for - June/July 2016)
South Africa leads the implementation of the Africa Coordinating Mechanism. SANBI-GBIF is developing a GBIF-Africa strategy, to elaborate the work of the network.
Promoting biodiversity informatics in several universities
Regional networking
Multiple BID projects about to start
Several JRS proposals submitted
ARCOS is currently developing a partnership with TNC (The Nature Conservancy) and NBDB (national biodiversity data bank)
KenBIF installed IPT
The first TDWG Conference in Africa
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11. Asia (previous regional meeting June 2015)
BIFA (Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia)
Six projects were selected, and now about to start. In the following period, we expect the outcome of these activities.
Integration of Endangered species (check-lists) in Asia (check-lists)
A number of these species have not yet been incorporated in major name database including GBIF backbone taxonomy
A solution is publication of endangered species list from each country through IPT
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12. Strategic plannig (food for thought)
EUROPE
Workshop on sample-based data publication (18-19 April)
Invasive aliens on the eagenda
Survey was already used last year
Current Work Plan will be updated
Russia will join the meeting
Strategic plannig (food for thought)
Possible nominantions for NC Chair/ Vice-Chairs positions?
GBIF Secretariat Nodes team is diminishing
Both vice chairs have also come to the end of their second term
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