Current projects:
Life Watch
LIFE WATCH is a European plan to link ecological monitoring data collected
from marine and terrestrial environments with the data in physical collections.
The new infrastructure will provide access to the large data sets from different
(genetic, population, species and ecosystem) levels of biodiversity together
with analytical and modelling tools.
The EU is now financing a preparatory phase project (planned start: 1 Feb 2008),
in which the BGBM leads WP5 “Construction Plan” in cooperation with the
Fraunhofer IAIS and Cardiff University.
European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy - EDIT
The overall objective of EDIT is to integrate European taxonomic effort
within the ERA and to build a world leading capacity. EDIT will create a
European virtual centre of excellence, which will increase both the scientific
basis and capacity for biodiversity conservation. EDIT comprises of 8
work-packages, the BGBM leads WP5 and is strongly involved in WP6.
WP5 “Internet platform for cybertaxonomy” aims to demonstrate exemplary
integration mechanisms in the area of informatics for taxonomy as well as raise
scientific efficiency by significantly reducing of the number and/or duration of
steps involved in the taxonomic research and publication/dissemination process.
WP6 "Unifying revisionary taxonomy" includes analyses and syntheses of taxonomic
concepts to create new knowledge.
Mirroring and replication of GBIF data services at the BGBM
A 2-year project establishing the European mirror site for the
Global Biodiversity Information Facility GBIF.
SYNTHESYS Networking Activity D: Information Access and Processing
SYNTHESYS
(Synthesis of systematics resources) is a collaboration project of 20 European
natural history museums and botanic gardens led by the Natural History Museum in
London and funded by the European Commissions 6th Framework Programme. The BGBM
coordinates informatics and IT tasks for the project in Networking Activity D.
NA D will build on and actively incorporate results of initiatives such as
BioCASE and ENHSIN, which have laid the base for a European collection
information service, and aims to take the research work from these initiatives
as the core of a practical, sustainable, Europe-wide information network for
users of taxonomic information. There will also be interaction with global
biodiversity informatics infrastructure, represented by GBIF, and related
European projects, such as ENBI.
The BGBM also takes part in the German Taxonomic Access
Facility DE-TAF of SYNTHESYS.
Coordination of the GBIF-D Node System
A 5-Partner project financed by the Federal
Ministry of Education and Research within the GBIF-D Programme to ensure the
technical and organisational cohesion of the seven Nodes in the German GBIF
system.
Sustained projects:
Botanical Node for GBIF-Germany
A 10-partner development project co-ordinated
by the BGBM, running until Dec 31, 2005. Financed by the Federal Ministry of
Education and Research within the GBIF-D Programme. The project is sustained by
the BGBM.
Digital
specimen images at the Herbarium Berolinense (B)
An implementation project at the BGBM, high resolution digital camera equipment
is used to produce digital images. Type specimens, loans, and some of the
important collections such as the Herbarium Willdenow form the priorities for
the project. Partially supported by
the Association
of Friends of the BGBM. and by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation.
A Biological Collection Access Service for Europe: BioCASE
A 35-partner research and development project
co-ordinated by the BGBM, starting Nov. 1, 2001. Financed under the
EU's 5th Framework Programme, Research Infrastructures until Jan. 31, 2005, to
be carried on by the partnership at least until August 2006. The BGBM is
responsible for over-all co-ordination and for the development of the access
system. The project is sustained in the framework of SYNTHESYS.
Euro + Med Plantbase
A research and development project (11 partners) coordinated by the
University of Reading's Centre for Plant Diversity and Systematics. 1.8.2000 -
30.7.2003. Financed under the European Commission's 5th Framework Programme, Theme 4
(Environment). The BGBM was responsible for software development and provided
part of the basic dataset (Med-Checklist). After the conclusion of the EU-funded
project, the Secretariat moved to the BGBM and the project was sustained by
funding from GBIF, the Mattfeld-Quadbeck foundation, the
Association of Friends of the BGBM, and from BGBM resources.
Rule-based association of taxonomic concepts: MoreTax
and MoreTax-2
A research and development project at the BGBM, 1. 11. 2000 - 28. 2. 2003, financed
by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation of
the Ministry of the Environment, with the aim to investigate models
for the association of data relevant to nature conservation by means of named
taxonomic concepts.
Its second phase (1. 4. 2003 - 31. 3. 2005), had the aim of bringing
the taxonomic core of the BfN's botanical data holdings into a Berlin-Model
database and to start with the implementation of the "trasmission
engine" for dependable linking between different taxon concepts.
The project is sustained in the framework of SYNTHESYS.
A task group chaired by W. Berendsohn with the aim to maintain the XML-based
standard for biological collection data (ABCD), which was developed by a the CODATA Working Group on
Biological Collection Data access (2001 to 2002,) and the CODATA Task Group on
Access to Biological Collection Data (2003-2006), with support from the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) of
the International Council of Scientific Unions.
Concluded projects:
Data capture software for German research collections: SPECIFY
A 2-year development project carried out by the BGBM in
collaboration with 4 partner institutions. Financed until January 15, 2005 by
the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the GBIF-DE Programme..
European Network for Biodiversity Information ENBI
The BGBM's contribution to ENBI (a EU networking project)
consists of the connection of 100 collection databases to the BioCASE network,
which provides rich content (ABCD) networking based on the same philosophy as
the GBIF collection networking efforts.
AlgaTerra Information System
A 3-year research and implementation project at the BGBM started Oct. 1,
2001, coordinated by Dr. Regine Jahn, financed by the German Federal Ministry
of Research under the BIOLOG Programme.
Configuration Assistant for BioCASE ABCD Data Providers
A one-year development project with the aim of implementing
software assisting BioCASE ABCD providers with mapping database attributes to
concepts represented in the ABCD schema. Although being primarily focused on
ABCD the software will be configurable to work with any content defining XML
schema.
European Natural History Specimen Network: ENHSIN
Concerted action project (6 partners) coordinated by the Natural History
Museum, London. 1.1.2000 - 31.3.2003. Financed under the EU's 5th Framework
Programme, Research Infrastructures. The BGBM was responsible for the
development of a prototype for joint access to distributed collection
databases.
Proyecto Flora de Cuba - Specimen database
An implementation project at the BGBM, supported by the Association
of Friends of the BGBM, implemented a specimen database for
the Flora of Cuba project.
Natural Substances in the Compositae: The Bohlmann Files
A research and implementation project at the BGBM, 1.5.2000 - 30.6.2002, financed by the German Federal Ministry
of Research under the BIOLOG Programme.
Resource Development for a Biological Collection Information Service in Europe:
BioCISE
BGBM-coordinated concerted action project. 1.8.1997-31.12.1999. Financed under the EU's
4th Framework Programme, Biotech. The Access Service is implemented under the follow-up project
BioCASE.
A Common Datastructure for European Floristic Databases: CDEFD
BGBM-coordinated concerted action project. 1.8.1993-31.4.1996. Financed under the European
Commission's
3rd Framework Programme, DG XII, Biotech. Superseded by BioCISE.
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