This document describes Work Package 3 of the ViBRANT project, which focuses on training, outreach, and community support. The objectives are to empower biodiversity scientists to use ViBRANT tools, strengthen cooperation, and raise the level of community participation. Activities will include training resources, networking opportunities, sociological studies of users, and community support. The overall goal is to engage people in the ViBRANT community and develop networks to foster long-term sustainability of the project.

1. ViBRANT
Virtual Biodiversity
ViBRANT
Virtual Biodiversity
Training and Sociology
Workpackage 3 Thierry Backeljau
Training, outreach and community support Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences,
Brussels
Thierry.Backeljau@naturalsciences.be

2. ViBRANT
Virtual Biodiversity
Who we are & what we do
RBINS
One of the largest European NHM
In world top-10 collections: > 37,000,000 items;
Thousands of primary types
Scientific library is the largest documentary resource of NH in
Belgium => ± 700,000 volumes/7000 periodicals
Belgium’s National Focal Point to the Global Taxonomy Initiative
Involved in several EU-Projects (SYNTHESYS, BHL-E, EDIT, etc.)
Thierry Backeljau
Research expertise: taxonomy, population genetics and molecular
systematics of diverse animal groups
Acting head of the Department of Invertebrates at RBINS; Teaching
Genetics at the University of Antwerp; Leader of JEMU
WP8 leader ‘Training and Public Awareness‘ – EDIT project
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3. ViBRANT
Virtual Biodiversity
What we will do in ViBRANT
Objectives WP3
• Empower and enable biodiversity scientists to use ViBRANT tools to
strengthen and to raise the level of community cooperation
Specific activities include
1. Organise and deliver training resources
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
Natural History Museum, London (NHM)
2. Implement networking activities
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
University of Trieste (UNITS)
3. Undertake sociological studies of ViBRANT’s user-base
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
4. Provide community support for the use of ViBRANT services
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
Natural History Museum, London (NHM)
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4. ViBRANT
Virtual Biodiversity
How we are doing it
1. Organise and deliver training resources
provide community training in scratchpads
offer custom-made modules for taxonomic research communities
addressing their specific needs
apply online learning and on-site training
provide feedback for training content development and planning
support and extend the user communities
working with scratchpads
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5. ViBRANT
Virtual Biodiversity
How we are doing it
2. Implement networking activities
create a network of associated member institutions to support
training and to disseminate information on ViBRANT services
make use of conferences, meetings workshops to promote the
use of ViBRANT tools and services
encourage nascent communities to cooperate
undertake outreach and advocacy work to stimulate and improve
networking, to get involvement and commitment of organisations
across Europe and beyond
extend the ViBRANT community (developers and user
community) and foster its long-term sustainability
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6. ViBRANT
Virtual Biodiversity
How we are doing it
3. Undertake sociological studies of ViBRANT’s user-base
analyse use of ViBRANT tools with regard to needs, barriers and
practices of current and potential users
analyse the user communities’ composition, motivation, social
structure
identify trends, levels and gaps in practices of collaboration and
networking
assess effects of ViBRANT tools on science progress
underpin service and development priorities of ViBRANT tools
maximise engagement of biodiversity researchers in the
ViBRANT community
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7. ViBRANT
Virtual Biodiversity
How we are doing it
4. Provide community support for the use of ViBRANT services
assist communities with site development and content migration
to the Scratchpad framework
manage and update the Scratchpad self-help-screen-cast and
tutorials
prioritise requests for short-term developer assistance (WP2)
manage and respond to comments on the issue tracker: single
click feedback on feature requests, queries and bug reports
WP3 will act as liaison between the user community
and the WP2 developers
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8. ViBRANT
Virtual Biodiversity
Long-term sustainability
WP3 will be the central contact point
for ViBRANT’s user-base
sociological studies outreach activities
(analysing the current and (training, community service,
nascent users) promotion, etc.)
are important
to understand needs, to engage people into
preferences, barriers of user ViBRANT community and
community to develop network that will
foster long-term sustainability
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