Background

The international megascience initiative Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, www.gbif.org) aims to make all the world’s information on biodiversity freely and universally available for query and analysis via the Internet. This will be accomplished through the concerted efforts of the GBIF members, which include countries, economies and organisations. These members are each required to establish and run a participants node, with the purpose of making their resources of biodiversity data available for search through the GBIF portal. The Danish national participant node of GBIF is Danish Biodiversity Information Facility (DanBIF).

DanBIF carries out the work on making accessible the Danish, Faroese and Greenlandic resources of biodiversity data.

Organisation

DanBIF was established July 1, 2001 through a co-financing contract between The Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen (FS.UC.), and the Danish Natural Science Research Council (DNSRC, now The Danish Council for Independent Research - Natural Sciences):

DanBIF resides at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Zoology Department, University of Copenhagen.
Director of the node is Professor Henrik Enghoff, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Zoology Department, University of Copenhagen.

DanBIF works to fulfil the obligations described in 1) The above mentioned contract, 2) The original application submitted to the DNSRC for establishment of a Danish national GBIF node, and 3) The Memorandum of Understanding between GBIF participant nodes and GBIF.

DanBIF consists of a board, a secretariat, and a network of members from Danish research institutions.

The DanBIF board include the following members:

Chair of DanBIF: Associate Professor Finn Borchsenius (Aarhus University)
Director of DanBIF (appointed by the Dean of FS.UC.): Professor Henrik Enghoff (Natural History Museum of Denmark, Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen)
University of Copenhagen: Head of Institute John Renner Hansen
University of Southern Denmark: Associate Professor Annemarie Surlykke - also Danish Head of Delegation to the GBIF Governing Board
University of Aarhus: Vice Director Kurt Nielsen

The representatives from the three universities have been appointed by DNSRC after nomination from the respective Deans.

The DanBIF network includes representatives from Danish research institutions that are involved in biodiversity research, currently 30 people from 16 institutions. The members have been appointed by DNSRC after nomination from the respective institutions.

The node secretariat employs three people – a Node Manager, M.Sc. & Ph.D. Isabel Calabuig, an IT Manager, M.Sc.Eng. Mihail-Constantin Carausu, and a Scientific Communications Officer & web editor, M.Sc. Lotte Endsleff.

Mission

DanBIF carries out the work on making accessible the Danish resources of biodiversity data via the GBIF data portal. DanBIF has build a Danish network of biodiversity research scientists, and has developed a web portal and a dynamic “BIF” tool for search, query and analysis of biodiversity resources in Danish repositories.

DanBIF has a work plan to achieve these goals, the major issues that are being addressed and implemented include:

A research network
Digitization of collections
System architecture
Data visualisation (e.g. web interface)
Outreach and Capacity building
In addition, DanBIF works to identify and establish contact to all relevant data providers and users, i.e. basic and applied research institutions, organisations, agencies, and industry, that hold biodiversity data and / or are engaged in biodiversity research.

In time, DanBIF will thus be able to provide a stable computing gateway that allows for search and query of Danish biodiversity data.

DanBIF acts as the interface between the GBIF and Danish data providers and users: the Danish institutions will, through DanBIF, provide data to GBIF, and may use data and gain from the GBIF initiative, including new research perspectives.

Page last modified: 18/04/2012