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GBIF DiGIT 2004 Request ...

GBIF DIGIT 2004 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 digitisation¹ of the estimated 1.5 billion specimens found in the world's natural history collections² and through the use of interoperable standards make both these specimen databases and other species level observational databases 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://tsadev.speciesanalyst.net/documentation/ow.asp?DarwinCoreV2.

Rationale for DIGIT 2004 RFP

In the global context, the resources that GBIF has available to fund digitisation activities are extremely limited. It has always been recognized 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 initiate international collaborative projects and activities. These types of activities are often difficult for local or national governments to justify. As a result, the 2004 DIGIT RFP is concentrating on aspects of the digitisation effort that will stimulate the development of partnerships and networking among natural history institutions particularly at the international level, the development of significant data sets that can be used in support of global initiatives, and aspects of international training and capacity building.

Program Officer: Larry Speers

For Further Information Contact: Larry Speers at LSpeers@GBIF.org.

ELIGIBILITY

• Open to all individuals and organizations. However, in order to ensure adequate fiscal management, all awards will be made to relevant and appropriate institutions (usually, the institution of the principal investigator).

• Individuals and institutions must agree to make the data developed through the project publicly available through the GBIF network either as the data are digitized or no later than two months after the GBIF funding ends.

AWARD INFORMATION

• Type of award: Seed money

• Size of awards: Grants of up to 20% of the total project cost - to a maximum of $50,000 US

• Estimated number of awards: Approximately 14 awards globally

• Funding amount: $700,000 US

A GBIF seed money award (up to a maximum of US $50,000) may be used to cover up to 20% of the total project cost; the remaining project cost must be funded by non-GBIF sources (See matching funds guidelines.).

Amount of GBIF support per project: Up to 20% (to a maximum of US$50,000) of the total project cost. The other 80% 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

RFP released Jan. 19, 2004.

Pre-proposals due Tues. Mar 2, 2004.

Pre-proposal reviewed by April 2, 2004.

Full Proposals requested from successful pre-proposal applicants April 7, 2004.

Full Proposals due May 21, 2004.

Full Proposals reviewed by June 30, 2004.

Successful Full Proposal applicants contacted by July 2, 2004.

1. TO BE SUCCESSFUL PRE-PROPOSALS AND PROPOSALS MUST:

   
   
   1. Address the overall goal of making primary species occurrence data available through the GBIF network

      The overall goal of the DIGIT seed money programme is to facilitate access through the GBIF network of primary species occurrence datasets.

      
      
   2. Have a measurable outcome or product:

      The product should have a demonstrable economic and/or scientific impact

      
      
   3. Support the GBIF philosophy by:
      
      1. 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

      2. Addressing the issues of data compatibility and interoperability using recommended GBIF standards (See: As a minimum standard - Darwin Core Version 2 http://tsadev.speciesanalyst.net/documentation/ow.asp?DarwinCoreV2)

   4. Address one of the following topics:

      1. Completion of the work needed to make significant data sets of species occurrences (label and/or observational data) publicly accessible using the recommended GBIF data standards and addressing the issues of interoperability.

         In support of GBIF's goal to demonstrate the value and utility of making the data associated with the specimens in the world's natural history collections and/or species level observational data sets easily and freely accessible, projects that can rapidly make large numbers of scientifically valuable specimen or observational based records available to the GBIF network using the recommended GBIF architecture and standards, with relatively small amounts of investment, will be given priority. While there are a few millions of specimen records currently accessible on the internet, there are also numerous already existing databases that are not available due to such problems as a lack of quality assessment and quality control, inadequate geo-referencing and/or the need to migrate them into modern interoperable database formats. Rapid progress in increasing the number of specimen or observational records accessible on the internet can therefore be made by bringing these existing data stores on-line. For these records to be useful for a broad range of scientific applications such as environmental modelling, they need to be geo-referenced as accurately as possible. In addition, an estimate of the precision of this geo-reference is needed in order to assess the relevance of any one record for use at different spatial scales.
         
         

      2. Initiation of the work necessary to capture, manage, make accessible and add value to information associated with the specimens held in Natural History Collections and/or large repositories of species level observational data in an efficient and cost effective manner.

         The digitisation and/or quality improvement of this legacy data is a time consuming and resource intensive undertaking. However, if the GBIF network is to be successful and expand, it is critical that we initiate projects that undertake large scale efforts utilising high throughput methods to produce high quality scientifically valuable content. It is critical that these new initiatives be designed in such a way that any updated information related to the specimen or observational record be reflected as quickly as possible in the publicly accessible records. For projects which will not be completed during the period of GBIF funding, an indication is needed of how the remaining elements of the project will be funded.
      
      

   5. Have one or more of the following as a significant component of the project:

      1. Partnership/networkamong natural history institutions or organizations developing large species level observational data sets. For example, institutions might form partnerships to digitise all specimen data for a particular taxonomic group, or institutions or organizations might partner to make large blocks of specimen and/or observational data from a particular geographic region publicly accessible. Proposals to facilitate the organization of these broad partnerships will be considered. Networks that include institutions from the developing world would be of particular interest.

      2. A product that will make a significant contribution to one or more global initiatives, such as the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), the Global Taxonomic Initiative, or ."2010 the Global Biodiversity Challenge" of the Convention on Biological Diversity (http://www.biodiv.org/default.aspx), or other relevant conventions and initiatives. Projects that can contribute to the development of appropriate baseline information in support of global initiatives are of particular interest.

      3. Training/Capacity Building Projects that have a training component for one or more institutions that will significantly increase these institutions' long term capacity and efficiency in the capture, management and sharing of specimen based information. Such enhancements might include the training of personnel in fast and efficient methods for capturing label data, in cost effective approaches to geo-referencing locality information, or in the use of particular software packages for managing and exchanging specimen based information.

   
   

2. PRE-PROPOSAL AND PROPOSAL REVIEW CRITERIA

   1. Scientific Merit -- First and foremost, projects will be reviewed for scientific excellence.

   2. Goodness of fit to the characteristics outlined above explanations should be provided where appropriate as to how the project meets the criteria.

   3. Cost-efficiency. Projects that will produce high quality datasets at a low cost per record will be favoured.

   4. Adherence to the preparation and submission instructions below.

   5. Projects will be favourably considered if, in addition, the demonstrate a potential for one or more of the following:

      1. Earliest possible access to significant data sets

      2. International collaboration

      3. Training and capacity building

      4. Data-sharing with countries of origin

      5. Leveraging additional long term funding to support the specimen digitisation process

      6. Testing and documenting digitisation 'Best Practices'

   6. Adherence to the preparation and submission instructions below.

   
   

3. PRE-PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

   Pre-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. Pre-proposals that do not meet these requirements will not be consideration. (Pre-proposals that are not emailed by midnight March 2, 2004, local time of the applicant will not be considered.) All proposals must be written in English.

   
   

4. REQUIRED FORMAT OF PRE-PROPOSAL:

   Page 1

   1. Title for Proposed Project

   2. Contact Information for Principal Investigator

      Name:

      Address:

      Telephone:

      FAX:

      Email:

   3. Contact information for Managing Institution

      Institution Name:

      Address:

      Institutional Contact Person

      Name:

      Telephone:

      Fax:

      Email:

   4. If applicable, a list of Partner Institutions

   
   

   PAGE 2

   5. Project Summary .- An abstract of the proposal (200 words or less)

   
   

   PAGES 3-6

   6. Project description (Maximum four pages) - A description of the proposed outcome (product) of the project. Include:

      1. Specific description of the project and the ways in which it will support the GBIF philosophy.

      2. Metrics (to demonstrate cost- and effort-efficiency) such as estimates of the number of records that will be digitised and/or made available, the taxonomic coverage of these records, the temporal coverage of the records, the number of records with geo-referencing, the number of these geo-referenced records with estimates of precision and the geographic areas that the records represent.

      3. Answers to the following questions:

         • What is/are the user community(ies) that would be interested in the product of this project?

         • Describe how this project addresses one or more of the following

           1. among natural history institutions and/or organizations developing large species level observational data sets.

           2. Making a significant contribution to one or more global biodiversity initiatives.

           3. Training/Capacity Building, particularly with respect to natural history institutions in developing countries, and their personnel.

         • How will the proposed outcome benefit biodiversity science, particularly from a global perspective?

         • How will the data be updated and maintained into the future (that is, if changes in information related to the specimen, such as a re-identification, are made, how will this be carried into the publicly accessible record)?

         • How will the proposed outcome contribute to the development of the GBIF network?

         • How will the product be made freely available using the recommended GBIF architecture, particularly addressing the issues of data compatibility and interoperability using recommended GBIF standards (See: http://circa.gbif.net/Public/irc/gbif/dadi/library?l=/architecture)?

   
   

   PAGE 7

   7. Preliminary project budget - A one-page preliminary project budget calculated in US dollars (may include salaries or wages, travel, equipment and supplies, and other [must be explained]) that shows how GBIF's 20% support would be spent, and how that support fits together with the other 80% of the project costs (please note the description of allowable cost-share items, above). Clearly indicate budget items for which GBIF funds would be used.