Calling all biodiversity data enthusiasts: have your say on the new objectives for the Biodiversity Data Integration IG

At the upcoming RDA 15th Plenary meeting, a BDI IG session is schdueld to discuss new objectives and scope for the Biodiversity Data Integration Intererest Group, and to agree on an updated charter to underpin this.

Given the very exciting developments lately in infrastructure developments around biodiversity data, we, the chairs of the Interest Group think that now is the right time to do this. There are many developments in the field of biodiversity data that would benefit with alignment of developments in other scientific domains and vice versa. Examples are the global movement to FAIR data, implementing RDA recommendations towards a FAIR DO infrastructure for specimen with Natural Science Identifiers, an extended Catalogue of Life and a global alliance for biodiversity knowledge. The Biodiversity Data Integration IG is one of the oldest thematic groups in RDA. Over time the group charter has become outdated and new objectives need to be discussed to  make the group purposeful and active again.  The general objective for the group for the past years was: to make this Interest Group a sustainable component of major biodiversity informatics initiatives, like LifeWatch, EU BON, GBIF, Encyclopedia of Life and Atlas of Living Australia. Preparatory activities were supported by EC FP7 projects, like PESI, ViBRANT, OpenUp!, BioVel and pro-iBiosphere and global organisations like TDWG.

"Enhancing biodiversity data interoperability through a cross-domain data fabric of digital objects, as currently being designed in RDA, is urgently needed. To achieve this we need an active biodiversity data integration group in RDA now that works on the domain-specific issues." says Wouter Addink, BDI IG co-Chair and RDA Europe Ambassador for Natural Sciences

Would you want to take part in the discussions about the new objectives but are you not able to attend the session in Melbourne?  In preparation for the BDI IG session at RDA P15 in Melbourne, we will organise a conference call using Zoom for interest group members and other interested people that are not, or not yet member. This call will take place at March 10, 15:00 UTC. We hope that this time will work for most people that are located far from Melbourne. Link for the conference call: https://zoom.us/j/860781225

In addition, to collect further input the group has set up a survey available at https://nl.surveymonkey.com/r/3V2T7WZ

It contains only 15 questions so it will require only a few minutes to complete. Join the virtual meeting on the 10th of March to learn about the initial results of the survey and contribute to the discussion.