Helsinki 8 May 2015, the NeIC 2015 Conference Perspectives on Nordic-Baltic collaboration on Research Infra-structures (RI) for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Helsinki 8 May 2015, the NeIC 2015 Conference Frank Hanssen (NINA), Ulf Gärdenfors (SLU), Anders Telenius (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet), Hanna Koviula (Luomus), Flemming Skov (AU), Tor G. Heggberget (NINA) and Mart Külvik (EMU)

We have a vision ...

By 2020 we should have A distributed & service oriented regional RI National level: Data flow and management Regional level : Services, tools and virtual laboratories Funding and mandatory support from research councils and stakeholders both at national and regional level National, regional and European impact Integrate Nordic-Baltic researchers and citizen scientists Nordic-Baltic science-based decision support System architecture designed for open science Educational support for eScience Recognized regional part of the European RI

Presentation outline Background Some examples of current Research Infrastructures (RI) for Biodiversity and Ecosystem research involving Nordic-Baltic countries The Nordic LifeWatch pilot project Action plan Conclusions

Background Nordic- Baltic research institutions participates in many national and international Biodiversity and ecosystem Research Infrastructure initiatives The Nordic Research Council (NordForsk) regularly assess the potential strategic, scientific and financial benefits of harmonizing RIs at the Nordic - Baltic level With this purpose NordForsk funded in 2012-2013 a Nordic pilot project aiming to identify needs, bottlenecks, possibilities and to develop strategies to boost the compe-titiveness of Nordic-Baltic countries in eScience and innovation

RI for biodiversity & ecosystem research Central, distributed or virtual facilities Laboratories Monitoring platforms Collections/data banks eInfrastructures Data management systems Networks, grid-computing Software/Middleware

The impact of RIs towards biodiversity and ecosystem research

Focal areas and actions components for improved coordination of future initiatives and projects

Current RIs involving Nordic-Baltic countries

Number of datasets in GBIF per country

Country contribution to GBIF

The European Biodiversity Observation Network- EUBON (2012-2017) The European Gateway to the Group on Earth Observations (GEOSS)

ESFRI LifeWatch (ERIC)

Norwegian Marine Data Centre A new national RI for marine data that will serve the marine science community with seamless access to documented marine datasets covering waters of Norwegian interest www.nmdc.no

National RI investments from 2006

European level Regional level National level Large scale distributed RIs LifeWatch, EUBON, GBIF, LTER, EUDAT, EGI Nordic-Baltic RI collaboration Facilitate development of a distributed Service Oriented RI in areas of joint Nordic-Baltic interest, for the benefit of improved research at national, regional and European level National RI`s National stakeholder collaboration European level Regional level National level

Nordic LifeWatch project (2012-2013) NordForsk (60.000 €) Nordic inventory on: Needs and challenges Scientific potential Spin-off effects Nordic metadata Legal framework Strategic reccomendations

Key findings Great potential for collaboration Baltic countries should be included Great technological and scientific synergies Need for harmonization of priorities, strategies and funding principles Great potential to address future needs and challenges facing the Nordic-Baltic research community in HORIZON 2020

Stakeholder needs and challenges How would you rank the identified needs and challenges according to the current situation in your country? Scientific domain Lacking awareness about the importance of data sharing and RI National priorities, strategies and policies must be harmonized Lacking computational models and high computing capacities Organizational domain Todays citation metrics do not favor data sharing Personal attitudes and institutional culture may obstruct data sharing Lacking knowledge of how to use new tools and eInfrastructure

Financial domain Legal domain Technological domain Previous inv. in (now) obsolete RIs may obstruct new investments Lack of a Nordic-Baltic perspective in national strategies and initiatives RI funding need s to be coordinated at the Nordic-Baltic level Legal domain Inconsistent national legislation regarding access to data Legal issues of data sharing between public and private institutions Copyright issues and contractual arrangements Technological domain Low capacity in the national HPC infrastructure Common vocabularies are missing or are incomplete Week social networks between the ICT and biodiversity communities

Expected national support and individual motivation for a Nordic-Baltic collaboration on RI & eServices? Do you expect that your country would give mandatory support to a Nordic-Baltic LifeWatch RI- collaboration?    Are you interested to take part in a Nordic-Baltic LifeWatch RI collaboration? I do not know I am not sure Yes No Yes Maybe

Action plan

Focus areas for further collaboration Metadata management Data sharing policies Data reliability Vocabularies & ontologies Discovery and access Physical infrastructure Development of eTools Scientific implementation Capacity building

Actions to be taken Collaboration with NeIC Workshop (Oslo Autumn 2015) Stakeholder networking State-of-the-art technology Needs and actions Project outline Explore funding opportunities Dialog with EUDAT about the uptake of the EUDAT B2 service suite at the regional level (project start Jan. 2016) Maintain the links to LifeWatch ERIC Maintain the links to IPBES and national action plans

Conclusions Great strategic, scientific and financial synergies of harmonizing large scale RIs at the Nordic - Baltic level Challenges has to be addressed with relevant means to ensure improved cost-efficiency and more collaboration in the field of biodiversity informatics and research Collaboration with NeIC, EUDAT and national RI pro-viders has a very high strategic importance

Conclusions (2) Relevant funding campaigns and policies should support national biodiversity RI`s towards a operational stage NordForsk and the Nordic-Baltic countries should together consider common funding of compatible RIs at regional level A strong Nordic-Baltic component will strengthen the European RI initiatives, and increase the competitive power of the individual countries in eScience and innovation

Thank you for your kind attention! .. Thank you for your kind attention! frank.hanssen@nina.no