Connecting Collections & the GBIF Registry of Scientific Collections
The Regional Diversity working group within the Biodiversity Crisis Response Committee of SPNHC initiated in 2021 the Global Collections Network Campaign to increase the diversity within the collections community and SPNHC, and strengthen a worldwide, densely interlinked network of natural science collections and an equitable, inclusive and engaged collections community. Collaborating with the team of the Data Products group at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), responsible for the GBIF Registry of Scientific Collections (GRSciColl), we conducted a first pilot campaign in Ecuador.
Building on the experiences from the pilot campaign, we are continuing the initiative as part of a CESP project (CESP2022-011) funded by GBIF from August 2022 to July 2023 in cooperation with the national GBIF nodes of Argentina, Ecuador and Guatemala, as well as collection professionals and biodiversity scientists from Latin America and the Caribbean region. Our objectives are
- an improvement of the diversity and geographic representation within the collections community at large as well as GBIF and SPNHC specifically regarding eg. gender, sociocultural context, geography, taxonomic expertise, professional role, etc.;
- an increase of the number, coverage and density of high quality records available through GRSciColl; and
- the development of a campaign blueprint package including documentation of GRSciColl functionality as well as outreach and training materials in English and Spanish.
GIS Collective & HoneyBeeWatch
From 2020 to 2021 I collaborated with GIS Collective, the COLOSS Survivors task force and Apimondia‘s BeeXML standard working group, contributing data structure development and advise on data management decisions for the development and launch of the HoneyBeeWatch citizen science platform.