Mission
Vision: GBIF-Sweden should serve researchers, public authorities and others interested in biodiversity as the Swedish hub for information and international exchange of data on the biological diversity of the world.
The ambition of GBIF-Sweden is to continuously harvest and publicly present up-to-date biodiversity data hosted by Swedish institutions and government authorities to stakeholders around the world through the international GBIF portal, in accordance with Swedish commitments under the international GBIF agreement. Where appropriate, GBIF-Sweden also aims to accumulate information about Swedish biodiversity kept elsewhere in the world and provide it to Swedish stakeholders in an appropriate form. GBIF-Sweden expects to contribute substantially to introducing and developing technical solutions enhancing data harvesting, data flow and data presentation/visualization. Finally, GBIF-Sweden aims to play a leading role in stimulating digitization efforts to increase the quantity and quality of content provided to GBIF by Swedish institutions.
Funding
Funding for GBIF-Sweden is provided by the Swedish Research Council through a successful application assessed in competition with other Swedish research infrastructures. Still funded by the SRC and formally a stand-alone activity since January 2018, GBIF-Sweden is part of a national research infrastructure for biodiversity informatics (Biodiversity Atlas Sweden) merging January 2021 with further colleagues into the Swedish Biodiversity Data Infrastructure.
The basic financial contribution to GBIF.org is provided separately by the Swedish Research Council.
History
The mandate to set up and run the Swedish GBIF node was given in 2001 by the Swedish government, via the Swedish Research Council, to the Swedish Museum of Natural History (SMNH) based in Stockholm. The Research Council holds the position as Head of Delegation of GBIF-Sweden. On 1 January 2011, GBIF-Sweden, formerly one of several independent international collaborations hosted by SMNH, became integrated into the Bioinformatics and Genetics Research Unit at the museum. Integrating activities with partners from eleven institutions in Sweden since January 2019, GBIF-Sweden is part of the national research infrastructure Biodiversity Atlas Sweden (BAS), which becomes the Swedish Biodiversity Data Infrastructure (SBDI) in January 2021.
Structure
GBIF-Sweden’s national network of data publishers includes more than a dozen major institutions in Sweden. BAS and SBDI are governed by a steering Committee of seven independent delegates, none of whom represent any of the organisations involved in the national network. This board is responsible to both the Swedish Research Council and the hosting institution (SMNH).
Also, a Scientific Advisory Committee, a Technical Advisory Committee and a Coordination Group representing partner organizations as per below support activites within the BAS and SBDI consortia: Karolinska Institutet; Linnaeus University; Lund University; Royal Institute of Technology; Stockholm University; Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute ; Swedish Museum of Natural History; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Umeå University; University of Gothenburg; Uppsala University.