BioDATA – Biodiversity data management skills for students (2018 to 2022)
BioDATA - is an international project on developing skills in biodiversity data management and data publishing. Undergraduate and postgraduate students from Tajikistan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Armenia will have an opportunity to take part in the intensive courses, gain practical skills and familiarize themselves with international research data infrastructures such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), international data standards (Darwin Core), software on data improvement, data publishing with the Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT), and preparation of data papers. Working with databases, creating datasets, managing data for statistical analyses, and for publishing research papers are the everyday tasks of a modern biologist. At the same time, these skills are rarely taught in higher education. Most of the contemporary professionals in biodiversity have to gain these skills independently, through colleagues, or through supervision. In 2018-2021, BioDATA offers to undergraduate and postgraduate students from Tajikistan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Armenia, a unique opportunity to take part in the intensive courses (2 ECTS) to become certified professionals in biodiversity data management. The project is coordinated by the University of Oslo (Norway) and supported by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The project is funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU).
Partners
- University of Oslo, Natural History Museum, Department of Research and Collections, Oslo, Norway
- Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, Institute of Botany, Plant Physiology and Genetics, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
- Zan va Zamin, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
- National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Institute of Genetics and Cytology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Laboratory of the Ecological Genetics and Biotechnology, Minsk, Belarus
- National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Scientific and Practical Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus on Biological Resources, Laboratory of Terrestrial Invertebrates, Minsk, Belarus
- Armenian National Agrarian University, Department of Science, Yerevan, Armenia
- V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Department of Mycology and Plant Resistance, Kharkiv, Ukraine
BioDATA Advanced– Accelerating biodiversity research through DNA barcodes, collection and observation data (2020 to 2024)
BioDATA Advanced - is an international project for developing skills in biodiversity data management and data publishing, and is a continuation of the initial BioDATA project (2018-2022). Undergraduate and postgraduate students from Russia, Norway, and South Africa will have an opportunity to take part in the intensive courses to gain practical skills working with international research data infrastructures such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), international data standards (Darwin Core), software on data improvement, data use (with an emphasis on data generated from DNA-based methods), and preparation of data papers. In addition, students will have the opportunity to learn the most modern molecular methods for monitoring biodiversity. The skills taught within BioDATA Advanced are important for carrying out the everyday tasks of a modern biologist but are mostly not formally taught in higher education. The project is coordinated by the University of Oslo (Norway) and supported by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The project is funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU).
Partners
- University of Oslo, Natural History Museum, Department of Research and Collections, Oslo, Norway (host for GBIF Norway).
- South African Biodiversity Institute - SANBI, Cape Town, South Africa (host for GBIF South Africa).
- Altai State University South-Siberian Botanical Garden, Barnaul, Russia (on hold, pending status for sanctions because of the Russian aggression war in Ukraine).
- The Secretariat of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility - gbif.org - provides additional support to BioDATA Advanced through course preparation and coordination.
