1996

The OECD Megascience Forum Working Group on Biological Informatics was established.

1996-1998

A Subgroup of the Working Group, the Biodiversity Informatics Subgroup, was set up and met seven times between June 1996 and September 1998.

1999

January

The Biodiversity Informatics Subgroup submitted its Report to the OECD in as part of the Report from the Working Group on Biological Informatics. In this report, the Subgroup’s major recommendation was that an international mechanism was needed to make biodiversity data and information openly accessible worldwide. The Report proposed the formation of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) as this mechanism.

June

The Report was considered at the meeting of the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy at Ministerial Level. The Ministers endorsed efforts by interested countries and encouraged initiatives aimed at establishing an international co-ordinating body that would implement a Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Ministers welcomed the efforts of several countries to undertake preparatory work necessary for the establishment of GBIF by mid-2000.

Read OECD Endorsement here.

September

The GBIF Interim Steering Committee met for the first time. Two more meetings took place February and September 2000.

2000

December

Memorandum of Understanding was opened for signature.

2001

March

GBIF officially established.

9-11 March

1st GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB1) in Montréal, Canada.
Christoph Häuser elected Chair and Kunio Iwatsuki elected Vice-Chair.
Ebbe Nielsen Prize created. 

15-17 June

2nd GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB2) in Bonn-Bad Honnef, Germany.
Denmark chosen as host country for GBIF Secretariat.

11-12 September

3rd GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB3) in Paris, France.
James Edwards chosen as Executive Secretary.
A country host agreement was signed by Denmark's Ambassador to France on behalf of the Kingdom of Denmark.

2002

20-22 March

4th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB4) in Canberra, Australia.
The first annual Ebbe Nielsen prize is awarded to Dr Nozomi Ytow, Assistant Professor at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. Dr Ytow was awarded the prize for the development of the Nomencurator, a new database model for tracking scientific names, and how the conception and use of these names changes through time.

9-11 October

5th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB5) in San Jose, Costa Rica.
GBIF's Supplementary Fund created. This fund is designed to promote the free and open availability of biodiversity data and information. Any organisation, foundation, individual or agency can contribute to the fund and their donation can go towards a specific activity or to general projects.

15 December

GBIF launches its communications portal and helpdesk.

2003

February

Secretariat building completed in Copenhagen; staff move in.

28 April

GBIF and the Danish node of GBIF (DanBIF) held a biodiversity exhibition called the 'millions of species' at the Danish Zoological Museum, which displayed a number of species and featured computers on which people could see demonstrations of data searches and how the information could be used.

30 April – 2 May

6th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB6) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
GBIF Secretariat building inaugurated by Denmark's Prince Henrik.
The 2003 Ebbe Nielsen prize given to Dr Stefan Schröder of Bonn, Germany. Dr Schröder developed a method for identifying bee species by imaging their wings and analysing the images on a computer.
Science Symposium on 'Founding the future: On the rock of real data or the sands of speculation?'

18 June

First GBIF demonstration project launched.

28 June

Memorandum of Cooperation with the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat which says that both organisations will engage in mutually beneficial activities.

15 August

UDDI registry opened and first data provider registered.

18 August

First GBIF training of data providers in Stockholm, Sweden

6-8 October

7th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB7) in Tsukuba, Japan.

15 December

Memorandum of Cooperation signed with the Catalogue of Life, which is one provider of the taxonomic work needed to sort all of the names of organisms in an authoritative manner – a time-consuming process. The agreement stated that GBIF would help the Catalogue of Life promote more rapid progress of their work.

2004

6 February

Prototype data portal launched

25-30 April

8th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB8), in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Independent, external Third-year Review of GBIF initiated.
Third Ebbe Nielsen prize awarded to Johan Nilsson from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Mr Nilsson developed 'Artportalen', or Species Gateway, an Internet portal that allows spontaneous reporting of sightings of birds, butterflies, moths, plants and fungi by anyone who wants to contribute biodiversity data. This Species Gateway will soon have modules for reporting amphibians, reptiles and mammals.
Science Symposium on 'Biodiversity data users serving science and Society'.

4-8 October

9th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB9) in Wellington, New Zealand.

2005

14 January

Meeting held with representatives of all the international codes of biological nomenclature to discuss activities of mutual benefit.

20-21 January

Herbarium digitisation workshop is held in Chania, Greece. Participants at this workshop discussed how to use new technologies to automate the process of digitisation in order to not only speed-up the process but also reduce the costs.

28 February

Third-year Review report is released. Report states that GBIF is the right initiative at the right time with the right goals.

2-4 March

Workshop entitled Building Species Banks: How Shall We Shape the Future? is held in Amsterdam. Participants discussed internet user needs for species information, and GBIF's possible role in meeting these needs.

17-23 April

10th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB10), in Brussels, Belgium.
Fourth Ebbe Nielsen prize awarded to Dr Pablo Goloboff of Argentina. Dr Goloboff designed computer programs that can pinpoint regions of the world that are home to a particularly unique range of animals and plants.
Science Symposium on 'Tropical Biodiversity: Science, Data, Conservation'.

10-13 October

11th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB11), in Stockholm, Sweden.
Consideration of a new Memorandum of Understanding and Strategic Plan for GBIF begins.
David Penman (New Zealand) elected Governing Board Chair; Hideaki Sagawara (Japan) and Christoph Häuser (Germany) elected Vice Chairs.

2006

2-6 April

12th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB12), in Cape Town, South Africa.
Consideration of a the new Memorandum of Understanding, Strategic/Operational Plans for GBIF, and structure of the scale of contributions from Voting Participants.
John Wieczorek (United States) awarded the 2006 Ebbe Nielsen Prize. Mr Wieczorek has been instrumental in the development of several of the standards and protocols that underpin GBIF biodiversity informatics.
Science Symposium on GBIF’s Role in Covservation and Monitoring in Biodiversity.

5 June

GBIF Memorandum of Understanding for 2007-2011 opened for signature.

1-4 October

13th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB13), in Iquitos, Peru.
The Memorandum of Understanding for 2007-2011 was approved to enter into force as of 1 January 2007.

2007

2 July

The GBIF Data Portal was officially launched at the CBD SBSTTA 12 meeting in Paris, France.

16 August

Dr Nicholas King takes up office as Executive Secretary of GBIF.

15-19 October

14th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB14) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 
The Board adopted the decentralised network model and the 1 billion record goal.
The 2007 Ebbe Nielsen Prize was awarded to Paul Flemons of the Australian Museum. Paul Flemons has been a key figure in developing a robust and accessible biodiversity data infrastructure that supports visualisation and analysis for use in conservation planning and natural resource decision-making.
Science Symposium on ’Biodiversity on the Web’.

2008

31 October – 7 November

15th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB15) in Arusha, Tanzania.
Approval of GBIF Work Programme 2009-2010. 
The 2008 Ebbe Nielsen Prize was awarded to Vincent Stuart Smith of the British Natural History Museum in London, United Kingdom for his innovative ’Scratchpads’ development.
Science Symposium on 'Biodiversity, Humans and Global Change in Africa'.

2009

3-9 October

16th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB16) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Election of Joanne Daly as new GBIF Governing Board Chair.
The 2009 Ebbe Nielsen Prize was awarded to Dr Andy Jarvis of CIAT, Colombia for his pioneering research on agro-biodiversity using data available through the GBIF network.
Science Symposium on 'Marine Biodiversity and Climate Change'.

2010

12-14 October

17th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB17) in Suwon, Republic of Korea.
Review and Forward Look reports presented.
Suwon Declaration was approved.
The 2010 Ebbe Nielsen Prize was awarded to Dr Sujeevan Ratnasingham of the University of Guelph, Canada, for this groundbreaking work on the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD).
The first GBIF Young Researhers Award went to Ms Amy McDougall from the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom and Mr Andrés Lira-Noriega from the University of Kansas.
Science Symposium on 'Trans-boundary Consesrvation Areas, Biodiversity Conservation and Peace Parks'.

2011

April

GBIF Memorandum of Understanding 2012- opened for signature.

4-6 October

18th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB18) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The 2011 Ebbe Nielsen Prize was awarded to Prof Jens-Christian Svenning, Aarhus University, Denmark, for his work in the field of macroecology which deals with the relationship between organisms and their environment at a large scale, to describe patterns of abundance, distribution and diversity.
The 2011 Young Researchers Award went to César Antonio Ríos-Muñoz, Mexico, and Conor Ryan, Ireland.
Science Symposium on 'GBIF at 10: Reaping benefits for science and society'.

November

A major upgrade to the GBIF Data Portal enhanced the quality and usability of data accessible through the portal.

2012

30 January

New GBIF Executive Secretary, Donald Hobern, takes up his post.

18-20 September

19th GBIF Governing Board meeting (GB19) in Lillehammer, Norway
The 2012 Ebbe Nielsen Prize was awarded to Nathan Swenson, assistant professor at the Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University for his work on demonstrating how occurrence data can help understand the impact of climate change on species distribution.
The 2012 Young Researchers Award went to Salvador Arias, Argentina and Elkin Tenorio Moreno, Colombia.
Science Symposium on 'GBIF at work - biodiversity data at the service of science and society'