Objectives
The overall objective of a nodes award scheme is to raise the visibility of the achievements of nodes within the GBIF network.
Other objectives include:
- Encouraging nodes to share their accomplishments as guiding examples to inspire others in the network
- Strengthening connections between HoDs and Nodes
- Raising the visibility of the node at the national level by receiving an international award and being featured in communications
Scope
The award scheme will feature two types of awards, both to be awarded at the same time and on behalf of the GBIF governing board. There will only be one winner for each award, but the panel can choose to provide a special mention to up to two runners up, depending on the quality of the nominations.
All nominations will be used to generate communications materials, including guiding examples and news items on GBIF.org, helping to raise awareness of all node accomplishments across the network.
The Nodes Award for Excellence
This award recognizes outstanding progress made by a node team within the year leading up to the award.
Awardees will demonstrate progress across the four core areas of services that nodes provide (from the nodes guide):
- Support for science and research
- Support for policy and decisions
- Community engagement and capacity development for mobilizing biodiversity data
- Technical services for biodiversity data management and curation
The Nodes Award for Global Impact
This award recognizes work pioneered by nodes that contributes to the broader delivery of GBIF’s strategic framework and benefits GBIF as a whole. The work in question has to have taken place within the year leading up to the award.
Schedule
The awards will be open to nominations every other year, coinciding with Global Nodes Meetings. The award scheme will be open for nominations in May and June. The review process will take place by mid-September to allow for the preparation of communications materials. The awards will be announced at the Governing Board meeting, typically in October.
Eligibility
The award scheme will be open to all nodes, regardless of whether they are Voting or Associate Participants, and aims to recognize contributions by both new and well-established nodes
The awards target the whole node team, rather than the individual node managers.
All node managers are eligible to self-nominate on behalf of their own node team.
Nomination process
The call for nominations will be run simultaneously for both awards. The call will be advertised on the GBIF website and sent to all nodes via email. Node Managers should submit the nomination package to participate in the award process as described below.
Review process
A mixed jury will be convened to judge the nominations for the awards. The jury should comprise:
1-2 Members of the NSG
Representatives from previous awardees (after 1 year)
1-2 Heads of Delegation
Secretariat staff
Possibly former nodes committee chairs, or ex-node staff members
All nominations will be scored against criteria that will be published in the call for nominations.
Criteria
Impact:
- The level of progress that has been demonstrated relating to the four areas of node services
- The scale of contribution to the implementation of nodes strategy and GBIF’s strategic framework
Approach:
- The effectiveness of the approach
- The originality and innovation of the approach
Replicability:
- The potential for reuse and broad impact in the nodes community
- Any replication/reuse that is already taking place
Announcement and Awards
The awards will be announced at the Governing Board meeting and Global Nodes Meeting.
The award will be a trophy - or objet d’art - that the node team can display in their office to recognize their achievements.
Communications around the award will help to raise the visibility of the node-level achievements and contributions to the implementation of the GBIF strategic framework.