After a strong response from GBIF Participant Nodes to the 2011 Mentoring Call, four projects involving nine countries and organisations have now been selected for support.

Since 2003, the GBIF Mentoring Programme has released annual calls for projects aiming to promote cooperation and sharing of capacity and expertise among GBIF Participant Nodes. A very strong response was received to the 2011 call, and the GBIF Secretariat is now pleased to announce the results of the evaluation process.

The following Mentoring Projects will be supported in 2011:

• Central African Republic (GBIF Centrafrique) with GBIF France and GBIF Cameroon (CamBIF)
• Chile with Costa Rica National Biodiversity Institute (INBio)
• Ghana Biodiversity Information Facility (GhaBIF) with the Netherlands Biodiversity Information Facility (NLBIF)
• Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UgaBIF) with ETI Bioinformatics

Progress reports from the Mentoring Projects supported this year are expected to be presented at the Nodes Committee events at GB18 in Buenos Aires in October 2011.

The next Mentoring Call will follow a similar timeline and will be announced early in 2012. Further information on the GBIF Mentoring Programme is available here:
http://www.gbif.org/participation/participant-nodes/mentoring/