Global Biodiversity Information Facility

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international, government-supported network and digital infrastructure for making biodiversity information freely accessible through the internet. Rather than functioning as a conventional commercial brand, GBIF coordinates participating countries, institutions, data publishers, researchers and other partners around common standards and services for sharing biological observations and records. Its central public service is GBIF.org, a searchable portal that brings together distributed datasets from museums, herbaria, universities, government agencies, citizen-science projects and other sources. The available material is primarily occurrence and distribution information concerning plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms, along with scientific names and related taxonomic or geographic information. GBIF's architecture allows users to discover and download records through a single interface even though the underlying data remain distributed among many publishing institutions. GBIF's purpose extends beyond simply hosting a large database. Its mission is to support free and open access to biodiversity data so that the information can underpin scientific research, conservation, sustainable development and public policy. The organisation promotes data mobilisation, technical standards, interoperability and the use of georeferencing and geographic information systems. These activities help connect records collected in different formats and at different biological scales, from information about individual specimens and species to broader questions involving ecosystems and environmental change. Participation is organised through a global network rather than a conventional corporate ownership structure. GBIF works with national and organisational participants and collaborates with related initiatives including the Catalogue of Life partnership, Biodiversity Information Standards, the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, the Encyclopedia of Life and the Group on Earth Observations Global Earth Observation System of Systems. Citizen scientists have also contributed to the expansion of the accessible data universe. GBIF has supported the development of biodiversity informatics through awards, challenges, training and technical capacity-building. From 2002 through 2014 it presented the Ebbe Nielsen Prize, an annual award recognising work in biodiversity informatics. From 2018, the Secretariat described two successor award formats: the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge and the Young Researchers Award. GBIF remains an active international data network and portal, although its precise scale, participating membership and dataset totals change over time and should be taken from current GBIF reporting rather than treated as fixed brand attributes.

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility was established in 2001 as an international effort to improve access to scientific information about the world's biological diversity. Its founding concept was that biodiversity records should not remain isolated in the databases and collections of individual institutions. By creating shared technical arrangements and a common discovery environment, GBIF could make information from many sources more useful to researchers, conservation practitioners and public authorities. GBIF developed as a network and infrastructure organisation rather than as a conventional data company. Participating governments and institutions support the network, while data publishers contribute records through distributed systems. This model allows museums, herbaria, universities, public agencies, research projects and other contributors to retain responsibility for their own datasets while exposing them through interoperable GBIF services. A central objective has been to establish protocols and standards that preserve scientific integrity and allow records created by different organisations to be searched, linked and analysed together. The GBIF portal primarily provides access to species-occurrence and distribution information, including records for plants, animals, fungi and microbes, as well as scientific-name data. Its work also includes georeferencing, geographic information systems and informatics links across biological levels. In this way, the network seeks to connect individual observations and specimens with questions concerning species distributions, ecosystems, environmental change, conservation and sustainable development. During its development, GBIF cultivated partnerships across the biodiversity-information field. The reference material identifies cooperation or linkage with the Catalogue of Life partnership, Biodiversity Information Standards, the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, the Encyclopedia of Life and GEOSS. These relationships reflect GBIF's role as part of a wider technical and scientific ecosystem rather than a standalone repository. GBIF also used prizes and related programmes to encourage innovation in biodiversity informatics. The Ebbe Nielsen Prize was awarded annually from 2002 to 2014 and carried a stated value of 30,000 euros. From 2018, the Secretariat presented the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge and the Young Researchers Award. At the same time, the network's accessible data holdings expanded considerably; the supplied reference describes growth of more than 1,150 percent over a ten-year period and notes the contribution of citizen scientists. GBIF's continuing role is to make biodiversity data discoverable and reusable at international scale. Its significance lies in combining open access, distributed institutional participation, shared standards and public-facing analytical access. Exact current dataset counts, participant numbers, staffing and funding are time-sensitive and are not stated here.

• 2018

  New award formats described

  [1]Global Biodiversity Information Facilityen.wikipedia.org

  The GBIF Secretariat presented the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge and the Young Researchers Award as annual programmes supporting biodiversity informatics and emerging researchers.

• 2014

  Ebbe Nielsen Prize period ended

  [1]Global Biodiversity Information Facilityen.wikipedia.org

  The supplied reference identifies 2014 as the final year of the original annual Ebbe Nielsen Prize period.

• 2002

  Ebbe Nielsen Prize introduced

  [1]Global Biodiversity Information Facilityen.wikipedia.org

  GBIF began awarding the annual Ebbe Nielsen Prize for work in biodiversity informatics.

• 2001

  GBIF established

  [1]Global Biodiversity Information Facilityen.wikipedia.org

  The Global Biodiversity Information Facility was established as an international network and infrastructure initiative for improving online access to biodiversity information.

A global, open-access coordination layer for discovering, standardising and using biodiversity data.

• Open biodiversity data portal

  GBIF.org data portal

  GBIF.org is the public discovery interface for biodiversity records contributed by institutions and other participants around the world. It enables users to search, inspect and access distributed datasets through a common portal, with emphasis on occurrence, distribution and scientific-name information.

• Scientific biodiversity data

  GBIF occurrence data

  The network exposes records describing where and, in some cases, when organisms have been observed, collected or otherwise documented. These records cover plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms and can support distribution modelling, ecological research, conservation planning and policy analysis.

• Data infrastructure

  GBIF data-publisher services

  GBIF provides a framework through which participating institutions publish biodiversity datasets for discovery through shared services. Its standards and informatics architecture are intended to improve interoperability while leaving source institutions as contributors and custodians of their own data.

• Research recognition and capacity building · 2002

  GBIF biodiversity informatics awards

  GBIF has used awards and challenge programmes to encourage innovation and participation in biodiversity informatics. The original Ebbe Nielsen Prize operated from 2002 to 2014; later formats included the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge and the Young Researchers Award.

• 2018

  Shift from the original Ebbe Nielsen Prize to successor programmesStrategy

  Background

  The original annual Ebbe Nielsen Prize was documented through 2014, while the GBIF Secretariat later described two annual formats for supporting biodiversity informatics and researchers.

  Action taken

  GBIF presented the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge and the Young Researchers Award from 2018.

  Aftermath

  The change continued GBIF's use of recognition programmes to promote innovation and capacity in biodiversity informatics, although the supplied material does not provide further operational details.

  Source

1. 1Global Biodiversity Information Facilityen.wikipedia.org
2. 2GBIF official websitegbif.org