1. Nordic Cooperation on Biodiversity Informatics Hannu Saarenmaa NordBIN meeting Uppsala 2011-11-02/03

2. Value chain in biodiversity information How much coordination is needed? Aggregators: GBIF BOLD EoL BHL Taxonomy projects Exchanges: Lifewatch GEO BON BioVeL Input from hundreds of data providers: Collections Surveys Citizen groups Research projects Digitisation projects Nomenclature projects Mostly small scale efforts Duplication of effort is ok? Coordination of data mobilisation? Outputs: Research projects Policy support EU reporting UN reporting Books Field guides Large integrated analyses Shared modelling, workflow, analysis tools Indicator production High visibility products Portals? Just enough to form a positive feedback cycle. Do we need Nordic aggregators?

5. Research infrastructure Availability of infrastructure determines between rich and poor societies GEOSS – GEO BON: 9 M€ EU call ESFRI – LifeWatch 327 M€, of which about 5% realised to date: Sweden, Norway, BioVeL, … – National funding is key, Nordic LifeWatch? – ERIC being formed NordForsk has funded only coordination – e-Science projects will be called for National roadmaps – LifeWatch included – GBIF and others not: National funding for GBIF?

6. Nordic strengths 50 million records in GBIF = 1/6 of all – It is becoming sufficiently comprehensive and useful. We need to start using it GBIF regionalisation strategy is being formed – History of cooperation in Norden Big collections and datasets

7. Nordic challenges Funding at Nordic level is small – Can only be used to complement and coordinate national efforts Funding for research infrastructure (vs actual research) is small Scientists by and large are still ignorant of GBIF – Rate of use of data is small, and is not connected to data sharing Fragmentation and duplication of efforts – We are not using our resources optimally