Participation - Core

• Feb 2001: Belgium joined GBIF
• March 2005: Hosting GB10 in Brussels
• Feb 2010: Mentoring Project with Mauritania
• July 2010: Data Validation Workshop by Dr. Arthur Chapman, in collaboration with GBIF France and NlBIF
• 2011: Checklists published as Darwin Core Archive
• 2013: Mentoring Project with Togo & Mauritania
• 2011+2013: Nodes Training Eventsat GB18 Buenos Aires and GB20 Berlin
• April 2014: Hosting Regional Nodes Meeting for Europe

Participation - More

• Anta'BIF (2009-2014): Data Publication + Data Portal on AntarcticaAnton VandePutte, Nabil Youdjou
• BioFresh (2009-2013): Data Portal on freshwater, FP7 projectAaike de Wever, Bos de Busscher, Michel Kapel
• Bio-GR (2012): Greater Region Data Portal on protected speciesSylvain Renaudier
• Canadensys (2009-2012)Peter Desmet(ex BBPf member)
• NPT (2011) Advisory Group CoordinationBruno Danis

Participation - Network

Contribution - Data

Contribution - Data

7 Data Publishers, 53 occurrence datasets5 Mio + records covering 227 countries/territories.7 checklists with 150.000 records.

Contribution - Belgian Data Portal

Contribution - Scientific Publications

47 Belgian scientific papers (1,572 in total)in Mendeley's GBIF Public Library.

Contribution - Data Papers

Digitization - small calls

• 5 calls so far : 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012
• 18 funded projects
• 1.5 Mio + records (specimen/observation)
• On average: 15,000€ / project

Digitization - process

• Open to all researchers working at any Belgian institute
• No taxonomical/geographical restrictions or focus
• Selection criteria are:
  • Cost efficiency
  • Data relevance/usability
  • Collaboration amongst research units

Digitization - 5th Digit Call

• Arachnofauna: Spiders Atlas of Belgium
• IFBL III: Historical inventory of vascular Plants in Belgium
• EarlyBirds: Historical birds records, citizen science
• IUCN Plants redlists: specimens of endemic plants, Central Africa

Digitization - BRAIN.be

(Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks)

• Recurrent framework programme for research
• 2012-2018 Programme organised around 6 themes:
  • Axis 1: Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Life History
  • ...
  • Axis 6: Collections Management
• Platform will help/support publishing of biodiversity data

Informatics

• Low turn-over team, 2.5 FTE IT experts
• Open Source Software centric
• Programming: Python, Ruby, SQL, ...
• Framework: Django, Rails, home made CMS, ...
• Web: HTML5, CSS, JSON, Javascript
• Postgres Database
• GIS: OpenLayers, Leaflet, Geoserver, Mapserver, PostGIS
• Data Publication: IPT, TapirLink, BioCASe, Digir
• Git repository, Agile methodologies

IT Support

Aside GBIF Activities, we also offer IT support to our Scientific community.

e.g. FORMIDABEL (Formicidae Atlas): Occurrence dataset + Data paper + Customized website

+ conferences Websites, support to spin-off projects,...

Other Platform Activities

Apart from being the National GBIF Node, the Platform acts as EPBRS Secretariat, BiodivERsA workpage leader, IPBES, Belgian Science Policy Interface, ...

We coordinate Communities of Practice:

• Invasive Alien Species
• Ecosystem Services
• Freshwater Assessment

Broader Platform Context

Platform Staff

Kristina Articus,Estelle Balian,Angélique Berhault,Dimitri Brosens, Julien Cigar,Hilde Eggermont, André Heughebaert,Hans Keune,Nicolas Noé,Sonia Vanderhoeven,Aline Van Der Werf