Through the ASV portal within SBDI, researchers can publish metabarcoding data in a way that makes them accessible via GBIF, including assignment of dataset DOIs and increased visibility and reuse. This creates new opportunities for combining molecular data with occurrence-based biodiversity data and strengthens their contribution to both national and global research efforts.
The Swedish Metabarcoding Network is now inviting researchers and data holders to join the community. The network will support data publication, gather information on existing datasets, and identify needs and challenges related to mobilizing metabarcoding data.
More information about the network and how to get involved is available at:
https://metabarcoding.se/
SBDI operates in close synergy with GBIF Sweden and other national and international initiatives, and the Director will represent the infrastructure in relevant forums and strategic dialogues.
We are looking for an experienced leader with a strong understanding of research infrastructure, biodiversity data, and collaborative environments. The position offers the opportunity to shape the future of Sweden’s biodiversity data landscape at a critical time for open science and biodiversity monitoring.
Full details about the role and how to apply are available here:
https://recruit.visma.com/spa/public/apply?guidAssignment=4dda4859-6da4-45f8-ac80-203ffeaf34c6&description=True&forcelocale=true
The Ebbe Nielsen Challenge is open to individuals and teams worldwide and encourages creative, data-driven solutions that address real-world biodiversity research, policy, or management needs. Submissions are evaluated by an international panel and assessed on their novelty, relevance, technical quality, and potential impact. Winners share a total prize pool of up to USD 20,000.
Participants may submit working prototypes, software tools, data pipelines, or other digital products that make use of GBIF-mediated data, either alone or in combination with other open data sources. Submissions should clearly describe the problem addressed, the approach taken, and the added value of the solution.
The submission deadline is 7 September 2026.
Further details on eligibility, submission requirements, evaluation criteria, and timelines are available from GBIF at: https://www.gbif.org/news/3DyM3tK5wgYipqyaHwG2c2/2026-ebbe-nielsen-challenge-open-for-submissions
]]>The award is presented annually to two early-career researchers, selected by an international jury coordinated through the GBIF Science Committee. Each awardee receives a prize of EUR 5,000. The 2026 recipients will be announced ahead of the 33rd meeting of the GBIF Governing Board, to be held in Oslo, Norway, in September 2026.
Eligible candidates must be currently enrolled in a graduate program and be either citizens of a GBIF Participant country or enrolled at an institution in a GBIF Participant country. Formal nominations must be submitted by national node managers or heads of delegation on behalf of eligible students. Each GBIF Participant may nominate up to two candidates. Students interested in being considered for nomination should prepare an application including a research summary, project description, curriculum vitae, and supporting documents, and should follow the process established by their national GBIF Participant.
The deadline for nominations to reach the GBIF Secretariat is 29 May 2026. For Sweden, the national deadline is 22 May 2026. Swedish nominations should be sent to gbif@nrm.se. Students, supervisors, and others interested in the nomination process or have questions are welcome to contact GBIF Sweden.
Further details on eligibility, nomination requirements, and the selection process are available from GBIF at https://www.gbif.org/news/2qFpkI7rwBNbMuSjn2rtae/2026-gbif-graduate-researchers-award-call-for-nominations
]]>Unlike a traditional scientific conference, Biodiversity Monitoring Week is designed as a meeting place for the full monitoring community. The emphasis is on transnational cooperation, shared infrastructures, governance, and practical approaches to monitoring biodiversity at scale. The overarching theme for the 2026 edition is Towards mass biodiversity monitoring, reflecting the growing need for harmonized, large-scale, and policy-relevant monitoring across Europe.
The program will be structured around nine thematic areas, covering terrestrial, marine, and freshwater monitoring; data management and monitoring infrastructures; mass monitoring approaches; governance, policy, and funding; engagement with the private sector; and capacity-building. In addition to plenary sessions and parallel discussions, the week will include workshops, poster sessions, networking opportunities, and field excursions.
Registration for BioMonWeek 2026 is expected to open in early February 2026.
Further information about the event, including updates on the program and practical details, is available at: https://www.biomonweek.eu
]]>SHARK is the platform for data access from the Swedish Marine Archive (Svenskt HavsARKiv). It stores biological, physical, and chemical data from Swedish marine environmental monitoring. On behalf of the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, SMHI is the national data host for oceanography and marine biology and is also recognized by UNESCO as a National Oceanographic Data Center within the IODE program. Data can be downloaded via a web interface or directly through the API, which SHARK4R uses to retrieve data and integrate them into analysis workflows.
In addition to data collection, the package offers automatic quality control of physical, chemical, and biological parameters. The package is developed by SMHI within the framework of the Swedish Biodiversity Data Infrastructure (SBDI) and is adapted to the SHARK format, which facilitates automation of data flows and provides a more consistent basis for analyses.
SHARK4R is available at CRAN, and documentation, including getting started guides, is available on GitHub.
]]>NILS is one of Sweden’s most comprehensive landscape monitoring programs. Led by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), it combines field observations, transects and aerial-photo interpretation to track how forests, farmland, wetlands, mountains, urban areas and other environments evolve over time. Because the same locations are revisited in repeating cycles, NILS provides rare long-term insight into how habitats and species respond to land-use change, policy measures and climate impacts.
The newly published dataset contains presence-absence information on plant species from the NILS basic inventory. These observations come from hundreds of carefully selected 5 × 5 km landscape squares that together represent the full diversity of Swedish environments. By making these data openly available through GBIF, NILS enables researchers, conservation practitioners and students to explore broad questions: How are vegetation communities shifting? Where do certain species thrive or decline? What landscape features seem to support biodiversity resilience?
For Sweden, the dataset strengthens the bridge between national environmental monitoring and international biodiversity research. For the global community, it offers a well-designed, long-term resource from a high-latitude country where climate and land-use changes are particularly dynamic.
The dataset can be explored and downloaded at https://doi.org/10.15468/jxusk2. More information about the NILS program is available from SLU’s website: https://www.slu.se/om-slu/organisation/institutioner/skoglig-resurshushallning/miljoanalys/NILS/.
]]>The training course is in English. The 2026 session will take place from the 1rst to the 5th of June 2026 at the CESAB in Montpellier. The price is 250 € for the week, including lunches. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants.
You must have a strong programming background, at least in R. Familiarity with Python is preferred, but not mandatory.
Pre-registration will be open from December the 3rd, 2025, to January the 16th, 2026.
]]>GBIF Sweden contributes to this effort by assisting with the mobilization and publication of vector datasets to GBIF - including VectorNet materials and additional national and regional sources - to increase findability and interoperability for research and surveillance. This work builds on our ongoing role in hosting and mobilizing vector data and supporting One Health use cases across the GBIF network. The VectorNet portal aggregates several datasets, including the VectorNet Observations database, and already features 14 vector surveillance datasets from EU Member States, with further expansion expected. The collaboration between EFSA, ECDC, and GBIF formalizes data flows that strengthen preparedness for vector-borne diseases and operationalizes recommendations from GBIF’s task group on biodiversity data for human diseases.
Explore the data portal and read more:
]]>Our sessions will delve into emerging technologies such as Digital Twins of ecosystems—virtual replicas that allow simulation and prediction of biodiversity changes—and highlight how these depend on advanced infrastructure, robust metadata, and open data standards. Further, we will highlight real-world breakthroughs in biomonitoring, genetic monitoring, and AI-enhanced insights into extinctions through time.
Equally important, SBDI Days 2026 will address the ethics of generative AI: How can tools capable of creating synthetic data be applied responsibly in ecology and biodiversity research? What frameworks are needed to combat AI model-based hallucinations, including biased data, fake data, and algorithmic bias? And how do we ensure that the rapid adoption of AI aligns with principles of fairness, accountability, and scientific transparency?
If we are to unlock the full potential of AI in ecology and conservation, we must do so with care, collaboration, and a shared commitment to integrity in science. The Swedish Biodiversity Data Infrastructure (SBDI) invites you to be part of this essential conversation. Join us at SBDI Days 2026 to connect, challenge assumptions, and help shape the ethical, technical, and ecological future of artificial intelligence in ecology and biodiversity research!
SBDI Days web site
SBDI Days program
A conference hosted by SBDI in partnership with SciLifeLab’s Planetary Biology Strategic Area.
]]>Lena Thöle, Data Steward at GBIF Sweden, will present examples of how biodiversity data published through GBIF can be reused and combined with other open data sources to support research and innovative applications.
The event is open to anyone interested in open data and its reuse within academia. No registration is required, and the webinar will be held mainly in Swedish.
Read more on the Swedish Research Council website “Öppna data – en resurs för akademin”
]]>ChatIPT provides an accessible interface for preparing and publishing datasets, handling much of the technical complexity in the background. The latest release introduces several new features, including ORCID login, dataset management, post-publication editing, and improved overall functionality. These additions make it easier for users to maintain control over their datasets and ensure that data can be updated when necessary.
The tool is intended to unlock data that often remain hidden in spreadsheets, contributing to a more complete picture of biodiversity at both national and global levels. By simplifying the publishing process, ChatIPT supports the wider GBIF community’s goal of increasing data availability and accessibility.
Researchers and data holders are invited to try out the tool and provide feedback to help guide its further development.
The newly released GBIF Science Review No. 12 presents summaries of 50 peer-reviewed studies that rely on GBIF-mediated data. Covering an impressive range of topics, these examples represent only a small fraction of the more than six new papers discovered and indexed every single day of the year through GBIF’s literature-tracking programme.
A special feature section focuses on One Health, underscoring how biodiversity information contributes to human and animal health research. The 12 highlighted studies cover issues ranging from mercury poisoning caused by illegal gold mining, to zoonotic mpox and schistosomiasis, and even a clinical investigation into inflammatory bowel disease. These examples illustrate the enduring relevance of One Health approaches in the wake of the global COVID pandemic and beyond.
For Swedish researchers and data publishers working through SBDI/GBIF Sweden, the Science Review provides both inspiration and concrete evidence of the impact of open biodiversity data on advancing discovery, health, and policy worldwide.
Download the full publication here:
GBIF Science Review No. 12 (DOI: 10.35035/6bn4-er73)
The results are striking:
The datasets are now fully accessible via GBIF.org and the Swedish Biodiversity Data Infrastructure (SBDI). With more than 3.4 million occurrence records, the IBA datasets represent the third-largest contribution from Sweden to GBIF.
“By making these data available on GBIF, we are empowering the scientific community and the public to explore biodiversity patterns among poorly known species“ says Dr. Andreia Miraldo, associate researcher at the Swedish Museum of Natural History and lead author of the study.
The sampling efforts in Sweden were supported by more than 150 citizen scientists, underscoring the value of public participation in biodiversity research. In Madagascar, local communities played a key role in fieldwork, highlighting the importance of integrating local knowledge into global science.
This collaborative effort involved several leading institutions in Sweden, Madagascar, and Poland, including the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SciLifeLab, Station Linné, the Madagascar Biodiversity Centre, and Jagiellonian University.
Explore the datasets via GBIF: IBA-NRM-KAW-2017-0088 – All available datasets
Read the full article in Nature Scientific Data, DOI: 10.1101/2024.10.24.619818.
]]>“Making research data more accessible and reusable is essential for advancing science and tackling global challenges. Through Researchdata.se, we strengthen the infrastructure for open science in Sweden and ensure that biodiversity data, along with other research data, can be used to generate new knowledge and insights.” — Veronika A. Johansson, Node Manager, GBIF Sweden
GBIF Sweden and SBDI is part of Researchdata.se, an initiative launched by Swedish National Data Service (SND) as part of the effort to realise the EU’s and the Swedish government’s goal of open access to publicly funded research data. In collaboration with research infrastructures such as the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Huminfra, InfraVis, NBIS, SciLifeLab, SITES, and Swedigarch, we contribute expertise and tools to support the research community in managing and sharing research data.
Researchdata.se will continue to evolve, with new features added to meet future needs. Would you like to contribute? Researchdata.se welcomes new partners, including research infrastructures and repositories, which are interested in sharing research data resources, training materials, and data management tools.
For more information about collaboration opportunities, contact gbif@nrm.se.
]]>One key goal of the Swedish Biodiversity Data Infrastructure (SBDI) is to make datasets on Swedish biodiversity widely available. A particularly valuable type of data comes from long-term systematic monitoring schemes. These datasets, based on strict sampling protocols, are especially useful for studying long-term changes in biodiversity.
The January census contributes to the International Waterbird Census, coordinated by Wetlands International since 1967. The September census, launched in 1973, is a national initiative that employs the same study sites and methods as the international census.
Together, these datasets include over 247,000 observations of nearly 22 million individual birds representing 73 species. Data were collected at 3,855 sites, most of which are along the Swedish coast and distributed across the country.
Last but not least, we must thank the thousands of bird counters for their efforts over almost six decades!
Find the data here:
January: https://www.gbif.org/dataset/5c80f69a-46be-4269-8606-19ffc8b971e1
September: https://www.gbif.org/dataset/ecebee66-f913-4105-acb6-738430d0edc9
Read more about the Swedish Bird Survey:
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/equipments/swedish-bird-survey
For more information about the project and the objectives of this Open Call, please visit the web site of the DTO-BioFlow Project.
Deadline 28th February
]]>GBIF Sweden has been awarded funding through the 2024 Capacity Enhancement Support Programme (CESP) for the project titled “Building capacity within biodiversity data between Ethiopia and GBIF nodes in Sweden and Finland.”
This collaborative initiative, led by GBIF Sweden, brings together partners including Addis Ababa University, the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre and Network, GBIF Finland, and Stockholm University. The project aims to enhance biodiversity data management and sharing between Ethiopia, Sweden, and Finland, fostering international cooperation and capacity building within the GBIF network.
CESP is an annual programme that addresses specific capacity needs identified by GBIF Participants, facilitating collaboration at regional and global levels. In the 2024 round, GBIF has awarded more than €78,000 to fund four projects involving partners across 18 countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe. These projects cover a diverse range of topics, including utilizing artificial intelligence for digitizing analog data, implementing interoperable database standards, integrating traditional knowledge into biodiversity data management, and streamlining digitization workflows.
GBIF Sweden look forward to the successful implementation of this project and the positive impact it will have on biodiversity data management and collaboration between Ethiopia, Sweden, and Finland.
For more information on the 2024 CESP projects, please visit the GBIF news release.
]]>Systematic inventories of the same type as the Swedish National Forest Inventory are conducted worldwide. However, the way this type of data is used in research has developed over time. A scientific article by a group of Swedish ecologists from 2013 would prove to be important for this development.
Read the entire newsarticle in SLU’s knowledge bank, and finf link to publication.
]]>Biologging is the use of devices to track animals and collect detailed information on their movement patterns, behaviour, physiology, and interactions with their environment over time. Through the Swedish Biologging Portal you can find sensor data from animals, including movement trajectories and data characterising behaviour or physiology of animals. This is the first version of the portal making available a first sample of datasets. More datasets will become available continuously.
− With the launch of the Swedish Biologging Portal, researchers now have unprecedented access to Swedish biologging data, making it easier than ever to get an overview of animal movement and behaviour. This is just the beginning, and with new datasets continually being added, only the sky is the limit, says Debora Arlt, project coordinator for the Swedish Biologging Portal.
The portal provides an overview of available datasets and tools to visualise the data. Our Biologging Open API provides access to the data.
The Swedish Biologging Portal has been developed in collaboration between Lund University (CAnMove Centre of Animal Movement) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (WRAM Wireless Remote Animal Monitoring).
Go to The Swedish Biologging Portal.
If you want to contribute data, or have any suggestions regarding the portal, please contact the team at biologging@biodiversitydata.se
]]>The Ebbe Nielsen Challenge is an annual incentive prize that seeks to inspire innovative applications of open-access biodiversity data by scientists, informaticians, data modelers, cartographers and other experts.
1st Prize: ChatIPT: Rukaya Johaadien’s chatbot provides conversation-style support to students and researchers who hold biodiversity data but are first-time or infrequent data publishers. Its prompts guide users as it cleans and standardizes spreadsheets, creates basic metadata, and publishes well-structured datasets on GBIF.org as a Darwin Core Archive.
2nd Prize: Planetary Knowledge Base: Developed by Qianqian (Hiris) Gu, Ben Scott and Vince Smith of the Natural History Museum, London, this early prototype provides an automated transcription service that captures structured semantic data from specimen label images by leveraging large language models (LLMs) and Graph Convolutional Neural Networks (GCNNs). Through its innovative approach, the Planetary Knowledge Base (PKB) may transform processes for digitizing and analysing natural history collections.
3rd Prize: CoreTech Assistant: Chen Yao’s multilingual chatbot prototype leverages Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology to bridge users’ linguistic gaps while reducing the steep learning curve for the Darwin Core data standard.
]]>The IPT serves as a fundamental platform for data publishers, enabling them to package and publish biodiversity datasets in a standardized format. By providing researchers with a robust mechanism to publish and validate their data, GBIF Sweden seeks to uphold data quality standards and foster greater collaboration within the scientific community. This initiative aligns with GBIF Sweden’s overarching mission to harness the power of biodiversity data for conservation, research, and decision-making.
The Test IPT is now available for exploration and utilization by researchers, trainers and stakeholders interested in contributing to the collective effort of building a comprehensive repository of biodiversity knowledge.
For further information and access to the test IPT, please visit https://test.gbif.se/ipt/ or email gbif@nrm.se.
]]>The call aligns with the GBIF Capacity Development Framework. It focuses on enhancing the long-term capacity of participants to benefit from and contribute to GBIF’s mission to mobilize the data, skills and technologies needed to make comprehensive biodiversity information freely available for science and decisions addressing biodiversity loss and sustainable development.
The maximum funding request is €20,000 per project.
Concept notes must be submitted by 18 June.
Read more at: https://www.gbif.org/news/4XHudxoaMexjeqgdaejBBg/call-for-proposals-for-2024-capacity-enhancement-support-programme.
]]>SUBSIM supports research and monitoring in marine ecosystems with open-source services for subsea image analysis. The platform is part of Swedish Biodiversity Data Infrastructure (SBDI).
]]>The update includes a new web-interface and a major update of the taxonomic backbone, now following current accepted names in World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Supplementary facts has been updated to follow the most current information available. Taxonomic information is now managed by monitoring taxonomic revisions in WoRMS and AlgaeBase, thereby facilitating the maintenance of an up-to-date taxonomic backbone. Additionally, new features have been introduced, such as occurrence maps on taxon sheets, which are sourced from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Maps API.
Links are provided for taxa present in WoRMS, Dyntaxa, AlgaeBase, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), IOC-UNESCO Taxonomic Reference List of Harmful Micro Algae (IOC HAB), The Norwegian Culture Collection of Algae (NORCCA), European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Protist Ribosomal Reference (PR2), and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System database (ITIS).
Please contact nordicmicroalgae@smhi.se if you have questions or feedback regarding the new website (the Nordic Microalgae website).
]]>The position will be associated with the Swedish Biodiversity Database Inventory (SBDI; https://biodiversitydata.se/). The focus of the position will be on the incorporation of species interactions in the SBDI database, and the utilization of such data in scientific studies. Many ecologists are not only studying biodiversity, but also species interactions. Despite this, species interactions are rarely incorporated into biodiversity databases.
The position involves research that will focus on the incorporation of species interactions into SBDI:
Researchers are appointed primarily for purposes of research and must hold a Swedish doctoral degree, or an equivalent degree from another country.
Please read more and apply here.
Closing date: 22 March 2024.
]]>Ecology research has not yet reached the big data revolution, while the forthcoming ‘data deluge’ creates many challenges for researchers in fields of biodiversity, ecology, conservation biology and systematics.
This two-day conference, January 24-25, 2024, invites the Swedish biodiversity research community to assemble and together pave the way for data-driven research in ecology. It’s for everyone who wants to make use of the big data wave that is building up within ecology research.
Location: the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.
Please register now, deadline 2024-01-10.
Read more about the conference and register.
]]>The software and biovolume files can be accessed from http://nordicmicroalgae.org/tools.
Photo: The dinoflagellate Dinophysis odiosa
]]>They are looking for international networks, citizen science networks, research institutes, universities, NGOs, etc working within marine biodiversity domain, interested in sharing their data to establish ingestion pipelines and to increase the flow of relevant biodiversity data to the EU DTOmarine.
Each applicants can access a maximum funding amount of 60,000 EUR.
An opportunity to shape the future of marine data management! Applications close on January 17th 2024.
]]>In a new collaborative study, they aim to (a) compile comprehensive marine biodiversity time series in Europe to (b) disentangle the major patterns and drivers of long-term biodiversity trends using various taxonomic and functional diversity metrics, species traits, and environmental variables.
Within the Horizon Europe project MARCO-BOLO the researchers are currently working towards understanding and analysing multidecadal trends of coastal and marine biodiversity at the European scale. To achieve this, we have already compiled more than 1,000 time series from public resources (e.g. EurOBIS/EMODnet Biology, BioTIME, etc.). However, we believe there are many more dataseries out there that would make our study even more comprehensive. Therefore, we are reaching out to organizations and individuals who may have valuable time series that can contribute to our research.
If you are interested in participating please contact the researchers to discuss any suggestions and collaboration terms. Data is greeted before 31 January 2024.
Further details regarding data requirements and data template can be found here: https://www.senckenberg.de/de/call-for-biodiversity-time-series-from-european-marine-ecosystems.
]]>Ecology research has not yet reached the big data revolution, while the forthcoming ‘data deluge’ creates many challenges for researchers in fields of biodiversity, ecology, conservation biology and systematics.
This two-day conference invites the Swedish biodiversity research community to assemble and together pave the way for data-driven research in ecology. It’s for everyone who wants to make use of the big data wave that is building up within ecology research.
Save the Date: January 24-25, 2024.
Sign up for a presentation, contribute with a poster/demo and register now.
Location: the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.
Read more about the conference and register.
]]>The portal will make it easier for current and future researchers to find, share and reuse data. Thanks to harvesting from a number of collaboration partners, the researchdata.se-portal should provide a richer search result than SND’s current catalogue. A number of organizations are already engaged to provide data. Additional partners will be added both during the course of the project and after the launch of the portal, which is currently planned for the beginning of 2025.
]]>The report emphasizes how investments in GBIF’s biodiversity data infrastructure have catalyzed groundbreaking research and facilitated numerous global conservation initiatives. By granting access to extensive and high-quality biodiversity data, the platform has sparked scientific breakthroughs, informed policymaking, and empowered local communities to take targeted conservation actions.
According to the report, every €1 invested in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility yields €3 in direct benefits for users and up to €12 in broader societal benefits.
The report showcases the indispensable role of Biodiversity Data Infrastructure in advancing biodiversity understanding and emphasizes the urgent need for sustained support for global data infrastructure, enabling transformative research and conservation endeavors.
Read more about this news.
]]>This guide will teach you the principles and approaches of exposing “sequences with dates and coordinates” in the context of broader biodiversity data. The guide covers choices of particular schemas and terms, common pitfalls and good practice, without going into platform-specific details. It will benefit anyone interested in better exposure of DNA-derived data through general biodiversity data platforms, including national biodiversity portals.
Focus is on eDNA and it is synced with OBIS (Ocean Biodiversity Information System).
Read more about the guide Publishing DNA-derived data through biodiversity data platforms.
]]>Now you can nominate a suitable person to be part of SBDI’s steering group. The steering group must have a broad composition and competence and must work for optimal development, operation and management of SBDI as a national research infrastructure.
Styrgruppens uppdrag
Styrgruppen är det högsta beslutande organet inom SBDI. Den har i uppgift att – i samråd med parterna inom konsortiet – verka för en optimal utveckling, drift och förvaltning av SBDI som en nationell forskningsinfrastruktur. Det innebär t.ex. att styrgruppen i samband med ansökan till Vetenskapsrådet beslutar om SBDIs strategi och budgetram och därefter årligen fastställer verksamhetsplan, budget och verksamhetsberättelse. Styrgruppen är också ett viktigt bollplank för föreståndaren och kansliet och bidrar på olika sätt med sina kunskaper och erfarenheter. Styrgruppen rapporterar till överintendenten på Naturhistoriska riksmuseet som är värdorganisation för SBDI. Styrgruppen sammanträder i regel 4-5 gånger per år.
Styrgruppens sammansättning
Styrgruppen ska ha en bred sammansättning med kompetens som täcker in såväl ledning av forskningsinfrastruktur som kvalificerad forskning inom området. Av nuvarande sex ledamöter är fyra verksamma i Sverige och två utomlands. Det ger styrgruppen möjlighet att anlägga både ett nationellt och ett internationellt perspektiv och på så vis ta ett helhetsgrepp kring utvecklingen av SBDI. Ledamöterna representerar sig själva i styrgruppen (i motsats till att representera sin arbetsgivare) och utses på grundval av kompetens och erfarenhet. Mandatperioden för ledamöter är fyra år, med möjlighet till omval för ytterligare en period.
Process för att utse en ny ledamot i styrgruppen
Formellt utses ledamöter i styrgruppen av värdorganisation, efter samråd med de andra parterna i konsortiet. Beredning av nominerade personer görs av styrgruppen, i dialog med värdorganisationen. För att säkerställa att vi får en bredd av nomineringar annonserar vi på hemsidan och informerar inom konsortiet.
Önskad profil för ny ledamot
Eftersom SBDI (liksom många andra infrastrukturer) står inför ett läge där finansieringsstrategin blir en stor fråga under kommande år så söker vi en ledamot som kan bidra särskilt till detta. Vi tror att en lämplig kandidat har djup kunskap om, och ett brett nätverk inom, det svenska forskningssystemet. Hen bör också ha en god förståelse för forskningsfinansiering och inte minst, vara intresserad av att bidra med sin tid och engagemang. Den nuvarande styrgruppen präglas av gott samarbete och en konstruktiv vilja att lösa problem.
Så nominerar du
Du kan nominera dig själv eller någon som du tror är lämplig för uppdraget. Nomineringen ska innehålla:
Nomineringar skickas på mail till director@biodiversitydata.se senast den 30 augusti 2023. Vänligen skriv på engelska.
Frågor om styrgruppen och processen skickas till ordförande Anna Wetterbom anna@wetterbom.se.
]]>We have a new challenge for you, called “GobyTrack”. Here, we need your help to monitor the spread of an invasive fish along the Swedish coastline. In order to achieve this goal we need you to identify fish and crab species in our movies. One of these species is especially interesting – the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), a small, bottom dwelling fish that causes ecological havoc in Swedish waters. Your identifications will help us to train machine-learning algorithms which will then automatically search the water for this fish in the future. Your data will directly contribute to marine ecological research and ecosystem management in Sweden! How does that sound, interesting? Well, then let’s get started here.
]]>The new version (1.4.0) of the plankton counting program Plankton Toolbox is available for both Windows and MacOS. The release includes an update of the counting module and several minor fixes. In addition the NOMP 2022 biovolume list, which includes information from the HELCOM-PEG 2022 biovolume list and additional taxa from the Skagerrak and the North Sea, are included.
The program can be downloaded at http://nordicmicroalgae.org/tools
]]>These data sets are:
• Ájtte (“nature of the mountains”-collection, including: insects, birds, mammals, fish, fungi, minerals, rocks and botanicals.
• Forests and Sami Museum (specimens and observations of the beetle collection)
We would also like to mention in this context that SBDI works towards the CARE principles.
The Sami National Day is common to all Sami regardless of whether they live in Sweden, Norway, Finland or Russia. It is a day that is usually celebrated with activities and cultural events.
]]>It concerns time series from national and regional monitoring programs for vegetated bottoms (Epibenthos), as well as time series from national programs for ringed seal (Pusa hispida) and picoplankton. Previously published time series have all been updated with new data in 2022. All datasets are sampling event data and contain a lot of information in addition to species observations.
New and updated datasets from SHARK at the IPT
SHARKweb is the website of Svenskt HavsARKiv
]]>The portal is an interface to SBDI records of DNA barcode sequences (Amplicon Sequence Variants; ASVs) and associated species occurrences that derive from high throughput sequencing of environmental (eDNA) samples (metabarcoding). More specifically, it functions as a semi-integrated module of the SBDI Bioatlas, and primarily allows users to search for ASVs and Bioatlas records using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), or via filters on taxonomy and sequencing details. The portal also enables users to submit their own data, and SBDI warmly welcomes data contributions from the metabarcoding community.
Read more about ASV portal functionality and software architecture in the BMC paper, check out which marker genes we currently support from the portal web page, or get in touch with the genetic biodiversity team (consisting of researchers from KTH, LNU, SU/KI & UU) via the SBDI support page. You can also sign up for the SBDI user workshop – How to publish your metabarcoding data.
]]>Here are two workshops you can attend:
At the meeting, the parties must agree on a new global framework and new international goals for biological diversity. The ambition is to stop the loss of biological diversity globally through the goals.
GBIF has an exhibit booth and hosted a side event and have five Key messages for COP-15. Staff from the GBIF delegation will participate in and support several side events during COP-15, both on-site at the main venue and off-site elsewhere in Montreal.
Also in Montreal is Torbjörn Ebenhard, director of the SLU Center for Biological Diversity, CBM. In the negotiations, he belongs to the Swedish negotiating delegation and is on loan to the EU’s presidency of the Czech Republic, as a negotiator for the EU. He is also appointed as lead author and negotiator for target A, targets 1-8 in the new framework for biodiversity. Read Torbjörn’s own reflections on the negotiations and everything around in the COP15 blog. (In Swedish)
The Nordic countries are present at COP15 with ministers, parliamentarians and 18 Nordic youth representatives who hope to put pressure on the final negotiations for an ambitious agreement. Read about the Nordic Youth Position on Biodiversity. (In Swedish)
The Swedish government is actively contributing to the development of a framework for the global work on biological diversity – the so-called “Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”. (In Swedish)
Here are some ways you can follow COP15:
Tyvärr är verkligheten en något annan. I ett brev till det anrika vetenskapliga tidskriften Science beskriver Guillaume Chapron (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet) att Sveriges agerande tvärtom kan betraktas som varande ett hot mot den europeiska biodiversiteten (Sweden threatens European biodiversity, Science 378, v. 668, p. 364. 27:e oktober 2022). Sverige har till exempel röstat emot en naturrestaureringslag för att reparera Europas skadade ekosystem som föreslogs av Europeiska kommissionen i år och har i många andra tillfällen arbetat för att försvaga eller underminera ansträngningar för att bevara biodiversitet, förutom att hitta kryphål i befintliga lagar. Enligt artikeln drar Sverige nytta av sitt rykte som en ”moralisk supermakt” för att undvika kritik, men att i själva verket går industrins och näringslivets intressen före bevarandet av biologisk mångfald. Det samma signal skickades dessvärre när vår nya regering lade ner Miljödepartementet efter 35 år som självständigt departement och i stället flyttade miljöfrågor till näringsdepartementet.
På Naturhistoriska riksmuseet och inom Svenska biodiversitetsdatainfrastrukturen (SBDI) arbetar vi varje dag för att främja vetskapen om och förståelsen för vikten av biologisk mångfald och robusta ekosystem för klara framtidens utmaningar på bästa sätt. Vi vill framhäva att biologisk mångfald och allt det man brukar kalla ”Naturen” har ett stort värde i sig själv och inte bara som en resurs för näringslivet – den tillhör oss alla och vi har en plikt att bevara den för framtida generationer. Vi vädjar därför till regeringen att se till att Sverige nu och framåt även blir en supermakt när det kommer till bevarandet av den biologiska mångfalden!
Margret Steinthorsdottir, PhD.
Föreståndare för Swedish Biodiversity Data Infrastructure (SBDI), Naturhistoriska riksmuseet.
]]>We are happy to welcome Margret Steinthorsdottir as the new Director of SBDI.
Margret is originally from Iceland and moved to Denmark as a teenager. She holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Geology/Palaeontology from the University of Copenhagen. After a few years in Chicago, USA, where she worked as a research assistant at the Field Museum of Natural History and at the University of Chicago, she pursued a PhD degree in Biology and Environmental Science at University College Dublin in Ireland.
Margret arrived in Sweden in 2011 and joined the Department of Geological Sciences at Stockholm University, first as a post doc and then as a visiting lecturer. She also joined the Bolin Centre for Climate Research as co-leader of Research Theme 3: Past climates, a position she still holds. In 2016, after receiving a Starting Grant from the Swedish Research Council, Margret moved to the Department of Palaeobiology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, where she worked as a researcher and designed and ran a master’s course on palaeobiology in collaboration with Stockholm University, as well as being the NRM project manager for SYNTHESYS+.
In 2022, Margret was awarded a stipend from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ Anna-Greta and Holger Crafoord’s Fund of almost a quarter of a million crowns for her project ‘Past and future climate change investigated with conifers’, following her successfully completed project Global Ginkgo. Margret’s research has mostly focused on the causes and consequences of climate change, specifically the relationship between CO2 and temperature (climate sensitivity), as well as the associated impacts on Earth’s ecosystems and biodiversity.
How intimately climate and biodiversity crises are interlinked has been a recurrent theme and that these must be fought simultaneously to ensure a resilient future. Now her focus turns to making biodiversity data open and accessible through SBDI, our growing national informatics research infrastructure providing data and innovative tools to the research community to tackle the important challenges ahead.
]]>Earlier this year, MISTRA announced that they would invest 100 million SEK in two research programs focusing on biodiversity and the financial sector. Finance to Revive Biodiversity (FinBio) is one of them. Led by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, FinBio includes activities focused on developing standardized methods for biodiversity impact monitoring based on environmental DNA and open data publishing. Services offered by SBDI, GBIF and the Living Atlases community are critical in providing the global scalability required by companies, and the transparency and trustworthiness required by investors. FinBio impact partners include asset managers and venture capitalists, among others.
In independent developments, the network Business @ Biodiversity Sweden, which is organized by Swedish environmental consultancy EcoGain and includes a number of leading Swedish companies, is hoping to set up a “Biodiversity Data Lab” focused on exploring the use of open biodiversity data and associated infrastructure in biodiversity impact assessment. An overview of SBDI was presented to network representatives at a meeting in Stockholm on October 6 (see photo). SBDI was represented by Acting Director Fredrik Ronquist, Support Officer Debora Arlt, and Support Center Manager Matthias Obst.
Listen also on the “Vetenskapsradion”-program about the FinBio-project on Swedish National Radio.
]]>This call builds on the first part of the series, which mobilized more than 500,000 occurrence records and 675,000 sampling events from more than 50 countries.
Vector-borne diseases account for about one quarter of all infectious diseases. Although there has been significant progress for malaria, with a recent decrease in malaria morbidity and mortality rates, this progress is currently halting. Other diseases, such as those caused by arboviruses like dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and more recently Zika, are expanding, with an increased number of cases and fatalities.
The necessity for developing new vector control strategies, approaches and tools was recognized through the Global Vector Control Response approved by the World Health Assembly in 2017. Among the mutually agreed objectives between GBIF and TDR is to work on a repository of data related to vectors and support design and identification of sources and contacts for data mobilization campaigns to improve data coverage to help research on human health. Within the framework of this collaboration, GigaByte will support a second issue on data papers on vectors.
The data papers submitted should describe datasets with the following criteria:
The call for manuscripts will be open until 30 April 2023.
The article processing fee will be waived for 15 papers, provided that the publications are accepted and meet the above criteria.
More information can be found at gbif.org: https://www.gbif.org/news/3Dlc7jJ260Q9wjkbViSzGX/second-call-for-data-papers-describing-datasets-on-vectors-of-human-diseases
]]>bdc, which integrates available data-cleaning tools into a single toolkit, and GridDER, which identifies potential sources of inaccuracy arising from the use of gridded surveys in occurrences, have earned selection as joint first-prize winners of the 2022 GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge.
Read more about all the prize winning open-data innovations for biodiversity at the GBIF-site.
Caption: Illustration of death’s-head hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos), from Illustrations of Linnaean genera of insects (1821) via Biodiversity Heritage Library , no rights reserved under CC0. Bruno Ribeiro (left) and Xiao Feng (right) led the teams sharing top honors for GBIF’s annual incentive prize named in honour of Ebbe Schmidt Nielsen. Photos via gbif.org
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