The aim of this project is to increase awareness and capacity among project partners for responding to the national challenges in different spheres (science, management, conservation, policy) using national biodiversity data portals.
This also entails understanding the demands of different use cases, understanding the language and how to engage with the respective actors, getting the skills and contacts to present, transform and combine GBIF mediated data in a suitable form in each case.
Pooling knowledge and experience from four GBIF nodes around national data portals and how these may be used to address national challenges, the project will see partners as both mentors and mentees at the same time, learning from each other and achieving deliverables in a collaborative way.
The project will be organized around two workshops, the first of which will focus on collecting, structuring and documenting use cases. During a second workshop the project partners will define and document workflows to make nodes participation effective in the identified cases.
To empower and benefit the global GBIF Nodes community, the project team will summarize and share its findings at the end of the project.
Project progress
At final reporting the project had achieved all its objectives and completed all its activities and deliverables. Throughout the project the team focused on two key areas: the implementation and management of the most commonly used technologies for GBIF national portals—Living Atlases (ALA) and Hosted Portals—as well as the identification of use cases demonstrating how these portals are used to address specific biodiversity-related issues.
Having identified during project development that the type of portal—ALA or Hosted Portals—influences how national challenges are addressed, the project included a detailed comparative analysis of these technologies, the development of a catalog of biodiversity use cases, and the creation of online training courses aimed at sharing knowledge across nodes.
The project also developed the Biodiversity Data Use Case Description Form, which served as a foundational tool for documenting and structuring the project's use cases.
As part of the project, the team held two workshop events. Firstly, a Discovery Workshop, 28 February – 1 March 2024, which enabled the project to finalize and produce the Catalog of Documented Use Cases, which offers a comprehensive overview of how national biodiversity data portals tackle various challenges and which is a valuable resource for understanding the practical applications of these portals and their impact across different domains of biodiversity management and conservation.
The second event was a Workflow workshop, held June – December 2024, which aimed at defining and describing workflows to make GBIF Nodes participation effective in the use cases identified. The final outcome of this event being the production of a self-guided eLearning module (in Spanish) on using national portal to address national challenges and a good practice guide which offers a clear and straightforward roadmap for GBIF nodes, detailing the steps to implement a national data portal that aligns with real needs and supports the identification and addressing of national challenges.
Project outcomes have been disseminated through partner websites, including GBIF Spain's project website and SiB Colombia's.
Post project, the online course will remain open to all nodes. The project team also envisage undertaking activities which will complement the project activities already carried out.
