The document outlines a project to enhance biodiversity research through a virtual network for taxonomists, starting on December 1, 2010. It aims to provide sustainable services for data mobilization, integration, and publication, while also addressing challenges in biodiversity informatics and fostering a collaborative ecosystem among researchers. Key objectives include improving access to biodiversity data and promoting virtual research communities across Europe.

1. 1 of 14 Virtual Biodiversity Research and Access Network for Taxonomy ViBRANT INFRA-2010-1.2.3: Virtual Research Communities http://vbrant.eu Currently in “negotiation” Starts 1 Dec. 2010 FP7 - INFRASTRUCTURES - 2010 - 2 CCPCSA

2. Scratchpads 2 of 14 Hosted websites for taxonomists Research & publication platform Modular (Drupal) & flexible Supports the taxonomic workflow Bottom-up design, agile dev. Ecosystem of communities (150+) 2,000+ users (unpaid) from 2007 ViBRANT follow on, €4.75M http://scratchpads.eu

3. Objectives (in “EU-speak”) 3 of 14 to provide sustainable services in data mobilisation, integration, publication, sharing, use and reuse to research communities, biodiversity and conservation agencies, national and regional authorities and the European public. to connect end users of biodiversity data to networks of primary producers or to the most appropriate research facility. to provide the means for biodiversity researchers to establish and document the state of the art in biodiversity research. to identify research and development needs and gaps in the provision of support to biodiversity researchers. to provide an information centre for biodiversity research results and developments. to defragment access to biodiversity data through data mining biodiversity literature. To set up the means, tools and infrastructure to produce a more rational and a more effective framework for European Biodiversity research. Operational consortium objectives are…

4. Practical Objectives - part 1 4 of 14 Inventory the Earth’s species Document their relationships “ Publish” & apply these data Goal… Addressing the challenges of taxonomy 1.8 M described spp. (10M names) 300M pages (over last 250 years) 1.5-3B specimens Data set… People… 4-6,000 taxonomists 30-40,000 “pro-amateurs” Many more citizen scientists?

5. Practical Objectives - part 2 5 of 14 Addressing the challenges of biodiversity informatics “… the field [of biodiversity informatics] appears to be growing in a void of overarching, motivating questions, effectively making it a set of technologies in search of questions to address.” Peterson et al, Syst. & Biodiv. 2010

6. 17 partners in 9 countries (universities, museums & SMEs) Consortium partners 6 of 14 The Natural History Museum, London (NHM) - Scratchpad VRE development & management Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Crete (HCMR) - Extension into ecol.,con. & citizen science, esp. marine biodiversity Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) - Training, outreach & community support Oxford e-Research Centre (UOXF.E9) - Mol. ID tools, services and data analysis Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) - User studies (sociological studies of user practices) Julius Kühn-Institute (JKI) - Data integration via controlled vocabularies & ontologies Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin (MFN) - Biodiversity inventorying & monitoring (mobile devices) University of Amsterdam (UvA) - Standards development (PESI) The Open University (OU) - Data mining and bibliographies (BHL) Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) - Document Markup & natural language text processing Vizzuality (Vizz) - Data visualisation & analysis (data layers) Pensoft Publishers (PENSOFT) - Push-button manuscript submission from the Scratchpad VRE Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6 (UPMC) - Morphological identification keys and services (Xper 2 ) Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) - Controlled vocab. dev. & userbase expansion via GBIF nodes Freie Universität Berlin (BGBM) - Data aggregation portal via CDM Université de la R é union (UdlR) - Mathematics & HCI of taxonomic identification keys University of Trieste - Key2Nature integration & outreach

7. Macro Structure - Delivery Components 7 of 14 Networking (WP3, 4, & 8) Service (WP5 & 6) Research (WP2 & 7)

8. CP-CSA Split & Macro Organisation Networking Activities (*1,932,641 €) Service Activities (*1,281,893 €) Research Activities (*1,552,707 €) WP3. (713,415 €) Training, outreach & community support (4) WP4. (796,278 €) Standardisation (5) WP8. (422,948 €) Ecological and conservation data mobilization (5) WP5. (1,013,430 €) Interaction and data services (5) WP6. (268,463 €) Scholarly Publishing (2) WP2. (908,416 €) Technical architecture (2) WP7. (644,291 €) Biodiversity literature data access & data mining (4) 8 of 14 WP1. (* 424,532 € ) Management, coordination & administration (7 partners) * Pre-negotiation figures

9. Networking Activities WP3. (713,415 €), 4 partners Training, outreach & community support WP4. (796,278 €), 5 partners Standardisation WP8. (422,948 €), 5 partners Ecological and conservation data mobilization 9 of 14

10. Networking Activities WP3. (713,415 €), 4 partners Training, outreach & community support WP4. (796,278 €), 5 partners Standardisation WP8. (422,948 €), 5 partners Ecological and conservation data mobilization 9 of 14

11. Networking Activities WP3. (713,415 €), 4 partners Training, outreach & community support WP4. (796,278 €), 5 partners Standardisation WP8. (422,948 €), 5 partners Ecological and conservation data mobilization 9 of 14

12. Service Activities WP5. (1,013,430 €), 5 partners Interaction and data services WP6. (268,463 €), 2 partners Scholarly Publishing 10 of 14

13. Service Activities WP5. (1,013,430 €), 5 partners Interaction and data services WP6. (268,463 €), 2 partners Scholarly Publishing 10 of 14

14. Research Activities 11 of 14 WP2. (908,416 €), 2 partners Technical architecture WP7. (644,291 €), 4 partners Biodiversity literature data access & data mining

15. Research Activities 11 of 14 WP2. (908,416 €), 2 partners Technical architecture WP7. (644,291 €), 4 partners Biodiversity literature data access & data mining

16. Practical issues 12 of 14 Starts 1 Dec. 2010 - finishes 30 Nov. 2013 Kick off meeting - 20-21st Jan., 2011, Paris Maximise synergies with EDIT (closes 28 Feb. 2011) Agile project development (we make it up as we go along) Metrics of success are user engagement (linear growth) Key facts Project lead (VS coordinator, DR project manager & WP1 lead, SR WP2 lead) Running WP1+2 2 developer posts (inc. SR), 1 admin post (GR), +VS, DR, CL, SK (+ eMonocot posts) Promoting a shared vision for the project Sustainability beyond ViBRANT NHM Role

17. Value Added (“EU-Speak”) 13 of 14 A direct route by which a wide range of stakeholders can access multi-level biodiversity information and data. Dramatically increase the efficiency and capacity of European stakeholders to monitor and manage information on ecosystems, biodiversity and natural resources. Support the emergence of virtual research communities of European and international dimension, providing a framework for uniting national initiatives across the ERA. Provide data management, analysis and publication tools in a self-governed, standards based framework, ensuring that data can be integrated into the biodiversity information and support services needed by society. Has to potential to deliver social change that goes far beyond earlier “name and fact recording” initiatives (which are the foundation of this infrastructure). “ defragment & integrate the stakeholders of biodiversity data”

18. Practical Value Added 14 of 14 More reliable (e.g., distribute the servers) More functional (e.g., phylogenetic & publication services) Easier to use (better workflows) Prettier (better graphical design - more intuitive) More integrated (for data stored inside & outside the Scratchpad framework) More sustainable (simple administration, distribute developers, development sandbox) “ making the Scratchpads better” Easier to compile, manage and reuse your data Easier to find and reuse other peoples data Promoting your data inside & outside the taxonomic community Getting people to work for you (crowdsourcing) “ making taxonomy better”

19. Practical Value Added - an example “ get published through your Scratchpad” Write the title & abstract

20. Practical Value Added - an example “ get published through your Scratchpad” Define who you want to see / coauthor the manuscript

21. Practical Value Added - an example “ get published through your Scratchpad” Define the structure of the paper

22. Practical Value Added - an example drag-&-drop the content

23. Practical Value Added - an example Preview the manuscript

24. Practical Value Added - an example Submit the manuscript for review (sent as XML)

25. Practical Value Added - an example Get published after peer review PDF HTML XML

26. Practical Value Added - an example Zookeys special issue

27. Questions?

29. Practical Value Added - an example 15 genera, 55 species Lower Cretaceous – Recent Types are located Rare in collections – often overlooked Diversity should be higher EDIT IRG: “Streamlining Fungus Gnat taxonomy”