The GBIF Nodes Committee promotes regional-level activities as a way to empower Node Managers to participate more actively in GBIF. These regional meetings complement the global-level activities of this committee.

There are six regional subcommittees within the GBIF Participant Nodes Committee, each with a regional representative who is a member of the Nodes Steering Group. These are Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania.

GBIF issues a call for proposals to organize regional meetings for Node managers every other year, with global Nodes meetings held in alternate years. The latest call for the organisation of regional Meetings for Node Managers was issued in early 2012.

Regional Meetings and Reports

2013 Regional Meetings

The following regional meetings are planned for 2013. For more information, please contact your regional representatives.

Africa:
Event: African regional nodes meeting
Dates:16-18 April 2013
Location: Pretoria, South Africa

Asia: 2013 regional meeting not yet confirmed

Europe:
Event: European regional nodes meeting
Dates: 6-8 March, 2013
Location: Joensuu, Finland
URL: http://digitarium.fi/en/content/european-gbif-nodes-meeting-2013

Latin America:
Event: Latin American regional nodes meeting
Dates:12-14 March 2013
Location: Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica

North America: 2013 regional meeting not yet confirmed

Oceania: 2013 regional meeting not yet confirmed

Previous Regional Meetings

There have been three rounds of regional meetings, supported by GBIF grants (2008, 2010 and 2012), which have proven an effective setting for identifying common needs, priorities and opportunities, based on existing regional collaboration processes.