Towards a Post-Graduate Level Curriculum for Biodiversity Informatics. Perspectives from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Community

Biodiversity informatics is a new and evolving field, requiring efforts to develop capacity and a curriculum for this field of science. The main objective was to summarise the level of activity and the efforts towards developing biodiversity informatics curricula, for work-based training and/or academic teaching at universities, taking place within the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) countries and its associated network. A survey approach was used to identify existing capacities and resources within the network. Most of GBIF Nodes survey respondents (80%) are engaged in onsite training activities, with a focus on work-based professionals, mostly researchers, policy-makers and students. Training topics include data mobilisation, digitisation, management, publishing, analysis and use, to enable the accessibility of analogue and digital biological data that currently reside as scattered datasets. An initial assessment of academic teaching activities highlighted that countries in most regions, to varying degrees, were already engaged in the conceptualisation, development and/or implementation of formal academic programmes in biodiversity informatics, including programmes in Benin, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, India, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and Togo. Digital e-learning platforms were an important tool to help build capacity in many countries. In terms of the potential in the Nodes network, 60% expressed willingness to be recruited or commissioned for capacity enhancement purposes. Contributions and activities of various country nodes across the network have been highlighted and a working curriculum framework has been defined. © 2021. Parker-Allie F et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedPeer reviewe

Towards a Curriculum for Biodiversity Informatics

Biodiversity informatics has been characterized as a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field, which aims to bring together the areas of biodiversity and informatics. A study was conducted looking at the current level of activity within the GBIF Participant countries and its associated network in relation to work-based training and/or academic teaching at universities, in the field of biodiversity informatics. It was intended to get an overview of GBIF Node Managers, (hence, member countries), already engaged in developing course curricula, or in providing training, and whether they would be willing to share resources or enter into collaborations, to further elaborate this field of science.This investigation followed a survey approach, conducted globally across the GBIF community to identify the existing capacities and resources within the network. The results indicated that the vast majority of GBIF Nodes survey respondents, are engaged in onsite training activities in biodiversity informatics areas, with a focus on professionals, mostly researchers, policy makers and students. Training includes data digitization, management, publishing, analysis and use, to enable the accessibility of analogue and digital biological data which currently resides as scattered databases/datasets.A list containing the associated URL's for training and dissemination activities in GBIF Nodes has been developed, based on survey results, and will be presented. An initial assessment of the academic teaching activities indicated that many countries across most regions were already engaged in the conceptualisation, development and/or implementation of formal academic programs in biodiversity informatics including Benin, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, India, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and Togo. This study also identified that digital e-learning platforms were a very important tool to help build capacity in a number of countries.To assess the level of potential in the network to support academic teaching and work-based training, sixty percent indicated that they would be willing to be recruited or commissioned to support teaching activities, demonstrating the value of the Nodes network to support the development of biodiversity informatics globally. The contributions and activities of various nodes across the network will be highlighted and a working high-level curriculum framework will be discussed

Strengthening Biodiversity Informatics and Data Mobilisation Efforts Nationally and Regionally through SANBI-GBIF and the African Coordinating Mechanism

Africa is a continent grappling with many challenges, but it is also alive with possibility and booming with optimism. To some, Africa is the birthplace of humankind, a place with exceptional beauty, brimming with amazing wildlife and human ingenuity. To others, its narrative has evolved from yesterday’s story, a story of everything gone wrong, a history of extractive resource utilisation by foreign interests, a 'dark continent', to an Africa Rising. A place "not so dark', to a continent with significant foreign direct investment that has increased over time. Africa is one of the most megadiverse continents in the world. It boasts a substantial share of the world’s biodiversity, including one-fifth of all mammal species and one-quarter of all bird species. Despite this, African species are dramatically underrepresented in the world’s freely-accessible biodiversity information resources. It was reported that only 4% of the >1 billion records available through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) concern African biodiversity, the majority of which were published by non-African institutions. Even within Africa, distributional biodiversity databases exhibit strong spatial bias due to uneven efforts in sampling, storing and sharing data, which may, in turn, reflect high regional variation in capacity, funding and political will. The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) is a knowledge-based organisation, where biodiversity information is the key resource that drives research and innovation, informs planning and policy development processes, informs decisions and is the basis for evaluating progress and impact. It is therefore important that biodiversity and biodiversity information are managed as strategic assets that will leverage shared value, supporting sustainable decisions towards the broader developmental objectives. In light of this, SANBI-GBIF has developed a regional engagement strategy and has been identified to lead the regional African Coordinating Mechanism (ACM) for biodiversity informatics on the African continent. The ACM is the ultimate vision for a formal regional structure for biodiversity information management and has been identified as far back as 2010, by the GBIF Africa Nodes, as a requirement to foster the implementation of the GBIF strategic plan in Africa. Six strategic priority areas to advance the biodiversity informatics efforts (driven by the GBIF-Africa Nodes and strategically identified partners) have been identified, across the value chain to support the generation, management, publication and use of biodiversity information for conservation, decision-making and sustainable development in Africa. These strategic areas include: 1. data mobilisation, 2. the data-science-policy interface 3. capacity building in biodiversity information management, 4. leveraging science technology and innovation, 5. regional engagement 6. growing the community of practice. Capacity development has also been identified as critical to ensure advancement of the biodiversity informatics agenda

Towards a Post-Graduate Level Curriculum for Biodiversity Informatics. Perspectives from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Community

Biodiversity informatics is a new and evolving field, requiring efforts to develop capacity and a curriculum for this field of science. The main objective was to summarise the level of activity and the efforts towards developing biodiversity informatics curricula, for work-based training and/or academic teaching at universities, taking place within the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) countries and its associated network. A survey approach was used to identify existing capacities and resources within the network. Most of GBIF Nodes survey respondents (80%) are engaged in onsite training activities, with a focus on work-based professionals, mostly researchers, policy-makers and students. Training topics include data mobilisation, digitisation, management, publishing, analysis and use, to enable the accessibility of analogue and digital biological data that currently reside as scattered datasets. An initial assessment of academic teaching activities highlighted that countries in most regions, to varying degrees, were already engaged in the conceptualisation, development and/or implementation of formal academic programmes in biodiversity informatics, including programmes in Benin, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, India, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and Togo. Digital e-learning platforms were an important tool to help build capacity in many countries. In terms of the potential in the Nodes network, 60% expressed willingness to be recruited or commissioned for capacity enhancement purposes. Contributions and activities of various country nodes across the network have been highlighted and a working curriculum framework has been defined