2005-2006 DIGIT Request for Proposals (HTML)
GBIF DIGIT 2005 - 2006 Request
for Proposals
General Information
Program Title: Digitisation
of Natural History Collection Data
Synopsis of Programme:
The overall goal of the DIGIT programme is to facilitate the digitisation
of the estimated 1.5 billion specimens found in the world's natural
history collections and through the use of interoperable standards make
these specimen records and other species level observational records
publicly accessible through the GBIF network. Making this digitised
data globally available will open up totally new opportunities for scientific
analysis and provide new sources of data for decision making purposes.
Collectively, these data are
of fundamental importance in service to global initiatives such as the
Convention on Biological Diversity and other biodiversity related initiatives
in establishing a baseline against which to measure the rate of biodiversity
loss. In particular, GBIF is interested in supporting the development
of datasets, networks and tools that can make a significant scientific
contribution to society and sustainable development. For this data to
be easily integrated into the GBIF network, certain minimum standards
must be met. These minimum standards are incorporated into the GBIF
information architecture http://circa.gbif.net/Public/irc/gbif/dadi/library?l=/architecture
particularly the Darwin Core
Version 2 data exchange standard http://darwincore.calacademy.org/Documentation/DarwinCore2Draft_v1-31_HTML.
Rationale for DIGIT 2005-2006
RFP
In the global context, the
resources that GBIF has available to fund digitisation activities are
extremely limited. It has always been recognised that the vast majority
of funds needed to digitise the world's natural history collections
would have to come from local and/or national funding sources. In addition,
GBIF's global perspective puts it in a special position to facilitate
the initiation of international collaborative projects and activities
which are often difficult for local or national governments to support.
For the first two years of the DIGIT Seed Money Program the RFP was
targeted at the rapid delivery of data sets that could be quickly incorporated
within the GBIF portal. However, following the direction of the GBIF
Governing Board and the recommendations of the GBIF Third Year review
it was decided that rather than having a general call for proposals
to support the digitisation of a broad range of taxonomic groups, we
would for the 2005-2006 DIGIT RFP target a specific taxonomic group
where the digitised data is urgently needed in support of specific International
initiatives such as: The International Pollinators Initiative (IPI),
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), The Convention
on Biological Diversity's (CBD) 2010 Biodiversity Target or a particular
Global Species Groups Conservation Assessment. The rational for this
decision was that by targeting a specific taxonomic group it would be
possible to develop a series of distributed data sets that when combined
will contain a richness of information that will permit new in-depth
innovative scientific analysis that would not be possible without access
to these combined resources. We believe that this approach will demonstrate
the value of the global digitisation effort and in the longer term will
justify increased funding for digitisation. In addition, by engaging
particular user groups for the digitised data in the digitisation process
we will demonstrate to a broader community the value of this activity.
To achieve the desired outcome
it will be necessary to concentrate on aspects of the digitisation effort
that will stimulate the development of partnerships and networking among
natural history institutions particularly at the international or regional
level and develop partnerships between these networks and the user communities.
It is anticipated that one or more networks of institutions will partner
with a specific user community to develop joint proposals to digitise,
share and utilise the resulting data sets.
To identify the specific target
taxa the GBIF secretariat hosted a two week e-conference. The outcome
of this discussion is archived at http://circa.gbif.net/Public/irc/gbif/digit/library?l=/digit_conference&vm=detailed&sb=Title. Following this e-conference it was
decided that the DIGIT 2005-2006 Seed Money Program would only request
proposal that would target the digitisation of:
- Apoidea in support
of the International Pollinators Initiative (IPI)
- Triticeae in an
effort to link the GBIF digitisation effort to the international efforts
to conserve plant genetic diversity
- Cypriniformes as
indicators in support of monitoring biodiversity change in freshwater
ecosytems
- Amphibians in support
of the Global Species Conservation Assessment for Amphibians.
Our e-conference indicated
that there were existing networks of data providers and data users that
would be in a position to develop the partnerships and networks necessary
to submit joint proposals to digitise, share and utilise specimen-based
data for these target groups. It is anticipated that there will be multiple
proposals targeting each of these taxonomic groups. The final review
process will identify which target taxonomic group will be supported
based on the strengths of the proposals related to that group. This
decision will be based on which of these target groups has developed
the broadest partnerships and the most efficient approaches for digitizing
and sharing data pertaining to their group. Partnerships between
data providers and data users will be particularly important and it
is hoped that these partnerships will reflect the willingness of the
user community to contribute resources or matching funds to support
the digitisation of the data and/or resources to support the analysis
and utilisation of the resulting data sets.
To allow sufficient time for
to develop the required partnerships and to prepared the joint proposals
the pre-proposal stage of the DIGIT RFP process has been eliminated
for the 2005-2006 DIGIT Seed Money competition and the deadline for
full proposals has be set for Nov. 15, 2005. (See the following PROPOSAL
PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS)
For Further Information Contact:
DIGIT Programme Officer Larry Speers at LSpeers@GBIF.org.
ELIGIBILITY
Open to consortia of data providers
and user organisations. However, in order to ensure adequate fiscal
management, all awards will be made to a relevant and appropriate institution
or organisation (usually, the institution or organisation of the principal
investigator). Consortia and organisations must agree to make the data
developed through the project publicly available through the GBIF network
either as the data are digitised or no later than two months after the
GBIF funding ends.
AWARD INFORMATION
Type of award: Seed
money
Size of awards: Grants
to a maximum of $650,000 US
Estimated number of awards:
Depending on the number of applicants and the amounts requested there
is the possibility of awarding from 1 to many awards globally
Total
amount of funding available: $650,000 US
BUDGETARY INFORMATION
Cost Sharing Requirements
A GBIF seed money award may
be used to cover up to 30% of the total project cost; the remaining
project cost must be funded by non-GBIF sources (See matching funds
guidelines.).
MATCHING FUNDS GUIDELINES
Amount of GBIF support per
project: Up to 30% of the total project cost. The other 70% of costs
may be made up through such items as:
- funds from non-GBIF
sources to be or previously spent on the project
- salaries of people
involved in the project that are paid by non-GBIF funds (to a percentage
equal to the percentage of their working week spent directly on the
project)
- volunteer time spent
directly on the project calculated at an hourly wage equivalent
- in-kind support
of the project (donation of hardware, software, travel costs, etc.)
- waiver of overhead
costs normally charged by institutions
TARGET DATES
- RFP released June
28, 2005.
- Proposals due 15
Nov 2005
- Proposals reviewed
by 15 Dec 2005
- Successful applicants
contacted by 31 Dec 2005
Payment schedule
60% of the award will be submitted
as soon as a Seed Money Contract has been signed with the administrating
institution of the project. The remaining 40% are to be paid upon receipt
and acceptance by the GBIF Secretariat of a mid term report, specifying
the amount of progress made against the milestones identified in the
Full Proposal.
TO BE SUCCESSFUL, PROPOSALS
MUST:
- Target the digitisation
of specimens of one of the following taxa:
- Apoidea in support
of the International Pollinators Initiative (IPI)
- Triticeae in an
effort to link the GBIF digitisation effort to the international efforts
to conserve genetic diversity
- Cypriniformes as
indicators in support of monitoring biodiversity change in freshwater
ecosytems
- Amphibians in support
of the Global Species Conservation Assessment for Amphibians.
- Be submitted by
a regional or international consortium of data providers
- Explicitly identify
how the resulting data sets will be utilised and who will be the main
user groups.
- Include the endorsement
and an indication of the level of support for the project from a specific
user group outside the data provider consortium
- Address the overall
goal of making specimen based data available through the GBIF network
- Have a measurable
outcome or product
- Support the GBIF
philosophy by:
- Demonstrating a
commitment to making the resulting data freely available using recommended
GBIF architecture http://circa.gbif.net/Public/irc/gbif/dadi/library?l=/architecture
- Addressing the issues
of data compatibility and interoperability using recommended GBIF standards
(See: As a minimum standard - Darwin Core Version 2 http://darwincore.calacademy.org/Documentation/DarwinCore2Draft_v1-31_HTML)
- Identifying the
institution or institutions that will be hosting the data server(s)
that will be registered with the GBIF network
- Projects will be
favourably considered if, in addition, they demonstrate a potential
for one or more of the following:
- Earliest possible
access to significant data sets
- International collaboration
- Training and capacity
building
- Data-sharing with
countries of origin
- Leveraging additional
long term funding to support the specimen digitisation process
- Scientific Merit
-- First and foremost, projects will be reviewed for scientific excellence.
- Cost-efficiency.
Projects that will produce high quality datasets at a low cost per record
will be favoured.
- Adherence to the
preparation and submission instructions below..
PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Proposals submissions will
only be accepted via e-mail to Digit_proposals@gbif.org in MS Word, Rich Text Format, or PDF
file (without any editing restrictions) using the following outline.
Proposals that do not meet these requirements will not be considered.
Proposals that are not emailed by midnight 15 Nov 2005 local time of
the applicant will not be considered. All proposals must be written
in English.
REQUIRED FORMAT OF FULL
PROPOSAL:
- Title for Proposed
Project
- Contact Information
for Principal Investigator
Name:
Address:
Telephone:
FAX:
Email:
- Contact information
for Managing Institution
Institution
Name:
Address:
Institutional
Contact Person
Name:
Telephone:
Fax:
Email:
- List of Partner
Institutions
- Project Summary
– An abstract of the proposal (200 words or less)
- Project
Description: a description (no more than ten pages) of the project
management strategy, which is to include the following items:
- The proposed product,
which is due no more than 18 months after receipt of the initial portion
of seed money;
- Project milestones
and timeline;
- The human and institutional
infrastructure of the project,
- How the proposed
product will be made publicly available – describe in detail how the
data will be made accessible to the GBIF network including the number
and location of the data servers
- How the project
will deal with the issues of data compatibility, interoperability and
recommended GBIF standards;
- Institutional support
and partnerships.
- The technical and
human resources necessary to complete the project,
- The estimated number
of digitised specimen records in each of the resulting data sets.
- Estimate of costs
per specimen record in the various data set products as an indication
of efficiency;
- Strategy for supporting
the existence and maintenance of the product after the GBIF funding
has ended
- Data sharing mechanisms
with countries of origin of the specimens to be digitised
- Training and capacity
building components, if any
- Project budget
- Two finalised budgets should be submitted:
- One showing the
uses to which GBIF's 30% project support will be put (may include salaries
or wages, travel, equipment and supplies, and other [must be explained]),
and
- Another showing
how the other 70% of the project costs will be covered (please note
the description of allowable cost-share items, above). Please justify
the availability of these matching funds if they have not already been
spent, e.g. …. .
- Letter(s) of
institutional commitment to the project.
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