The GBIF Secretariat invites proposals to develop a document entitled Best Practice Guidelines in the Development and Maintenance of National Species Checklists.

We seek to identify individuals or groups who have been directly involved in the
compilation, maintenance and dissemination of a national species checklist to develop these guidelines in order to compile a set of practices that may serve as a guide for future efforts to build and maintain national species lists.

The guidelines will address the following:

• Describe the motivation behind the development of the national checklist. Who are the stakeholders and what is the target audience? Specify the end uses of the checklist.
• Identify sources of support for the development of the checklist. Provide an estimate of the resources required to develop the compilation.
• Describe the intended scope of the list. What data types are included in the checklist and which are considered critical? How is the checklist geographically organized?
• Identify challenges in data mobilization and maintenance and describe how these were addressed. What sources and source formats are utilized? How are data extracted from these sources? Describe the workflow processes, resources and skills required to compile the checklist. Describe the means by which the list is maintained and kept current with taxonomic opinion.
• What format is the national list published in and what were the drivers behind this choice?

Successful proposals will include:

• Links to existing national checklist resources and a short qualifications description.
• A draft table of contents.
• Estimated length of the manuscript in pages.
• Proposed costs (in euros) and cost justification.
• Schedule of deliverables.

Please send proposals to David Remsen, Senior Programme Officer for ECAT by 15 September, 2011. (email: dremsen@gbif.org)