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ECAT 2004 Request for ...

ECAT 2004 Request for Proposals

GENERAL INFORMATION

Program Title:

Electronic Catalogue of Names of Known Organisms (ECAT)

Synopsis of Programme:

For the global enhancement of biological research and resource management, a centrally available list of the names applied to the organisms of the Earth is needed. This list, including names, synonymies and classification, will be freely accessible to everybody at any time and should provide the user with reliable data, organized in a structured manner. It will serve as a global resource and with time, is intended to become an authority file for taxonomy. The Electronic Catalogue of Names will also serve as a reference, to make the integration of specimen-level data in the GBIF Network possible.

Rationale for ECAT 2004 RFP

In the global context, the resources that GBIF has available to fund taxonomic activities are extremely limited. It has always been recognized that the vast majority of funds needed to produce the catalogue of the worlds organisms would have to come from local and/or national funding sources. In addition, GBIF’s global perspective puts it in a relatively unique position to initiate international collaborative projects and activities of a type often difficult for local or national governments to justify. As a result, F the 2004 ECAT RFP is focussed on facilitating taxonomic projects that will develop significant data sets that may be used in support of global initiatives.

Programme Officer

Per de Place Bjørn

For further information

Contact Per de Place Bjørn at pdpbjorn@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 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 10 awards globally

• Funding amount: $480,000 US

Budgetary Information

Cost Sharing Requirements

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.).

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

Target Dates

1. RFP released Jan. 19, 2004.
2. Pre-proposals due Tues. Mar. 2, 2004.
3. Pre-proposal reviewed by Apr. 2, 2004.
4. Full Proposals requested from successful pre-proposal applicants Apr. 7, 2004.
5. Full Proposals due May 21, 2004.
6. Full Proposals reviewed by June 30, 2004.  
7. Successful Full Proposal applicants contacted by July 2, 2004.

I. TO BE SUCCESSFUL, PRE-PROPOSALS AND PROPOSALS MUST :

1. Address the overall goal of producing taxonomic datasets

   The overall goal of the ECAT seed money programme is to develop databases of taxonomic information, i.e. regional or global taxonomic checklists and Global Species Databases at high standard and in a format that is interoperable with other data made available through GBIF. It is desirable that the taxonomic work reflects a consensus among workers of a given taxon and thus, the development of taxonomic databases is often done as a networking effort. This year the RFP does not focus on development of taxonomic tools.

2. Have a measurable product:

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

3. Meet one or more of the current GBIF priorities, which are for projects that

   a. Support international initiatives

   Projects that support international initiatives (e.g. Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) objective one: "A widely accessible working list of known plant species", the Global Taxonomic Initiative or "2010 - the Global Biodiversity Challenge" of the Convention on Biological Diversity (http://www.biodiv.org), or other relevant conventions and initiatives)

   b. Collaborate

   Projects that incorporate collaboration between or among institutions in order to produce datasets, especially if these collaborations include partnerships between developed and developing world institutions

   c. Have targeted coverage

   Projects filling a recognized gap in the catalogue of scientific names, either taxonomic or geographic

   
   
4. Support the GBIF philosophy by:

   a. Demonstrating a commitment to making the resulting data freely available using recommended GBIF architectures http://circa.gbif.net/Public/irc/gbif/dadi/library?l=/architecture

   b. Containing at least the following data fields for each species:

   1. Accepted Scientific Name (with References)

      Including, in separate fields

      1. Genus

      2. Specific epithet

      3. Infraspecific epithet

      4. Infraspecific marker

      5. Author string

      6. Author year

   2. Synonyms (with References)
        Including status of the name

   3. Common names (with References)

   4. Latest taxonomic scrutiny

   5. Source database

   6. Comment field

   7. Family name

II. 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 large, high quality datasets 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 at least one of the following:

• Earliest possible access to large data sets

• Leveraging additional long term funding to support the cataloguing of the world's organisms

• Bringing together regional datasets to form a global species database (GSD).

• Training and capacity building
  Projects that have a component of enhancing the capability of one or more of the institutions taking part in the projects, rendering them better equipped for production of species databases and making them available on the internet. Such enhancement might include the training of personnel in the use of computer systems for developing names databases

6.Adherence to the preparation and submission instructions below.

III. PRE-PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Pre-proposals submissions will only be accepted via e-mail to ECAT_PROPOSALS@GBIF.ORG in MS Word, or Rich Text Format, or PDF file (with-out any editing restrictions) using the following outline. Pre-proposals that do not meet these requirements will not be considered. (Pre-proposals that are not e-mailed by midnight March 2, 2004, local time of the applicant, will not be considered)

REQUIRED FORMAT OF PRE-PROPOSAL:

PAGE 1:

A. Title for Proposed Project

B. Contact Information for Principal Investigator

• Name:

• Address:

• Telephone:

• FAX:

• Email:

C. Contact information for Managing Institution

• Institution Name:

• Address:

• Institutional Contact Person

• Name:

• Telephone:

• Fax:

• Email:

D. If Applicable, a List of Partner Institutions

PAGE 2:

E. Project Summary: An abstract of the proposal (200 words or less)

PAGES 3-6:

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

• Specific description of the way(s) in which the project possesses the characteristics listed above.

• Metrics (to demonstrate cost- and effort-efficiency) of the amount of taxonomic information made available through the project. Please specify the estimated number of names or species to be made available, making clear which names or species are made available through the proposed project and which are already found in existing databases on the web. The inclusiveness of the data, e.g. to what extent the data contain information on synonyms, literature references etc. should be specified. Specify the taxonomic coverage of the project and describe the projects value to science and/or society. Describe and take into account possible overlap with existing taxonomy projects.

• Answers to the following questions:

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

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

  3. How will the data be updated and maintained into the future (that is, if changes in information are made, how will this be carried into the publicly accessible record)?

  4. 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:

G. Preliminaryproject 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.