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GBIF Newsletter

No. 20 - January 2011
The mission of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is to facilitate free andopen access to biodiversity data worldwide via the Internet to underpin sustainable
development. Priorities, with an emphasis on promoting participation and working throughpartners, include mobilising biodiversity data, developing protocols and standards to ensure
scientific integrity and interoperability, building an informatics architecture to allow theinterlinking of diverse data types from disparate sources, promoting capacity building andcatalysing development of analytical tools for improved decision-making.

CALLS FOR ACTION AND PARTICIPATION
Call for nominations for the 2011 Ebbe Nielsen Prize
The Ebbe Nielsen Prize will be awarded for the 10th time in 2011 to a person or small team thatis demonstrating excellence in combining biodiversity informatics and biosystematics research.
Deadline for applications is 15 March. [read more...]Call for proposals for Young Researchers Award
Two awards of €4000 will be available in 2011. The main objective of the Young ResearchersAward is to foster innovative research and discovery in biodiversity informatics by graduate
students in masters and doctorate programs at universities in countries participating in the GBIF
network. Deadline for application is 15 March. [read more...]Call for GBIF Support of Regional Training Events
The call for GBIF support of regional training events is targeted to GBIF Participants and it seeks
to support training activities with a regional component, by offering direct assistance by theGBIF Secretariat and discretionary financial support, up to 5000 EUR per event, to be used
exclusively to enable regional participation in the events by representatives of GBIF Participantsfrom the region. Deadline for application is 15 February. [read more...]COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
Success of 3-year capacity building project celebrated
A week-long training event in Paris involving participants from 22 francophone countries marked
the closing of the collaborative project between GBIF’s Capacity Enhancement Programme forDeveloping Countries (CEPDEC) and the French programme Sud Expert Plantes (SEP). The French
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs hosted the official closing ceremony for the SEPCEPDEC collaboration at the Quai d’Orsay on 26 November 2010, where the project’s
participants presented the results of this 3-year cooperation and their recommendations for thefuture. [read more...]
GBIF Checklist evaluation awards announced
GBIF is pleased to announce that it has been able to support 16 awards in response to aNovember 2010 call to evaluate a GBIF-promoted exchange format for species checklists andtaxonomic data. [read more...]
GBIF contribution to the GEOSS Portfolio for Science and Technology
The recently launched GEOSS Portfolio for Science and Technology features a web based GIS
client application developed by GBIF in collaboration with several other data service providers.
[read more…]

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PARTICIPATIONGBIF – now 101 Participants
The total number of GBIF Participants is 101, comprising 55 GBIF country members and 46
international organisation members. For a full list of GBIF’s current Participants, please click
here.

MEETINGS & EVENTSGBIF at CoP16
GBIF attended the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC CoP16) which was held in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November to 10
December 2010, following on CoP15 held in Copenhagen in 2009.
During the course of the two-week negotiations, GBIF focused efforts for communication andoutreach on raising awareness, monitoring and attending side events where discussions were
followed and contact was made with potential new partners, conducting bilateral meetings withpotential new Participant countries, following the negotiations and the Executive Secretarymaking a high-level intervention on the last day (more information here) and was interviewed
on climate-change.tv (more information here).

NEWS FROM THE NETWORKNew Heads of delegation
The GBIF Secretariat is happy to welcome two new Heads of delegation; Dr Luis Campos Baca,
Peru and Dr Richard Edwards, Wildscreen. For details of the Governing Board delegations,please click here.
New funding strengthens the German GBIF NodeGermany is one of the founding members of GBIF and a major provider of biodiversity
information, such as observational, collection and multimedia data. The German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has now decided to invest 4.2 million Euro into theGerman GBIF node system. [read more...]NEWS FROM THE SECRETARIAT
GBIF Secretariat staff changes
A number of staff changes have taken place in the GBIF Secretariat. GBIF welcomed Developers
Oliver Meyn and Lars Francke to the Secretariat end-2010. Meyn and Francke join the IT team tofurther strengthen the IT development. GBIF bid farewell to Programme Assistant Louise Scharffin November and Communications Assistant Caterina Schwedt in December 2010. Also theProgramme Officer for Communication and Outreach, Francois Rogers, has decided to leave theSecretariat by the end of January 2011. In February 2011 GBIF will welcome Gilda Kischinovsky
as new Administrative Assistant and Burke Chin-Jen Ko as Informatics Liaison.
To see an up-to-date list of GBIF Secretariat staff, please click here.

CONTACTS
Postal and physicaladdress:

GBIF Secretariat
Universitetsparken 15
DK-2100 Copenhagen ØDenmark

Contact information for GBIF
Secretariat staff:

Tel: +45 35 32 14 70
Fax: +45 35 32 14 80
E-mail: info@gbif.org

http://www.gbif.org/communications/directory-ofcontacts/gbif-secretariat/

GBits archive: http://www.gbif.org/communications/resources/newsletters/
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No. 20, January 2011