The success of GBIF depends in part on establishing a good understanding within research and policy communities of the benefits and opportunities provided by free and open access to biodiversity data, as well as the importance of responsible use of such data through proper citation and attribution.
The GBIF Secretariat and GBIF participant nodes work to promote this understanding through their communication platforms, at meetings and across networks around of the world. However, this relatively small group can never hope to reach all relevant communities without assistance.
Biodiversity Open Data Ambassadors can fill that gap. If you are a biodiversity professional who promotes the principles and best practices of open data sharing and use, we can equip you with information resources, networking opportunities and recognition to make you an even more effective advocate in your own professional communities.
Qualifications and commitment
Are you a potential Biodiversity Open Data Ambassador? We ask for some minimum qualifications and a basic level of commitment, namely that:
- You can provide at least one example in which you have shared biodiversity data through GBIF, used GBIF-mediated data, and/or advocated open data in your professional capacity
- You agree with the ICSU-World Data System Data Sharing Principles: in short, that data should be shared openly in a timely manner, with the fewest restrictions possible and used with proper citation.
- You consent to have your contact details openly available on GBIF.org, and possibly on websites run by GBIF nodes and partners
- You consent to be contacted by GBIF Secretariat and GBIF nodes with requests to promote open biodiversity data at particular events
- You undertake to provide details of at least one example each year of an event, publication or process in which you have advocated for open biodiversity data
How to become a Biodiversity Open Data Ambassador
If you fit the description above, it's simple—just fill out this form.
We will review your application then contact you to confirm your role as a Biodiversity Open Data Ambassador. We will give you details of how you can access resources to help you with your advocacy, including presentation slides, talking points, posters, brochures and other materials.
Once you are confirmed as an ambassador, we will also put you in touch with your national GBIF node, if you are in a participating country (if, indeed, you aren't already). Working together, you and node staff may be able to help strengthen connections with relevant national research and policy communities. We will also inform you of other GBIF-related activities in your country such as data publishing, projects and research use examples.
We appreciate when ambassadors capture and share their experiences from events attended, which helps us to improve our materials and messaging for future events.
Biodiversity Open Data Ambassadors are also encouraged to network with one another through a group in the GBIF Community Forum to which you will be invited when your role is confirmed.
Contact
Questions or comments? Contact us at ambassadors@gbif.org.
Biodiversity Open Data Ambassadors
| Name | Affiliation | Country | Areas of expertise | ORCID  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wouter Addink | Naturalis Biodiversity Center | Netherlands | Data infrastructure, FAIR data principles, interoperability, open source software development, botany, ornamentals | 0000-0002-3090-1761 |
| Anne-Sophie Archambeau | IRD/UMS PatriNat/GBIF France | France | Biodiversity data mobilisation, data sharing, FAIR data principles | 0000-0001-6902-1465 |
| Arturo H. Ariño | University of Navarra | Spain | Biodiversity, taxonomical databases, soil ecology, global ecology, biogeography, bioinformatics, environmental science, air pollution, distributions, methodology, Mediterranean ecosystems | 0000-0003-4620-6445 |
| Olaf Banki | Naturalis Biodiversity Centre | Netherlands | Tropics, trees, sample-based & species occurrence data, stakeholder engagement, building consortia, biodiversity data research infrastructures | 0000-0001-6197-9951 |
| Mary Barkworth | Intermountain Herbarium | United States | Poaceae, identification resources, plant taxonomy, outreach, education | 0000-0001-9785-1538 |
| Vijay Barve | Florida Museum of Natural History | United States | Biodiversity Informatics, Citizen Science, Data Visualization, India, Africa, Global South, Biodiversity Data Gaps | 0000-0002-4852-2567 |
| David Bloom | VertNet | United States | Biodiversity science, data mobilization, data quality, tool development, training, georeferencing, research, standards, vocabularies | 0000-0003-1273-1807 |
| Dimitri Brosens | INBO / Belgian Biodiversity Platform | Belgium | Biodiversity informatics, Darwin Core, data management, databases, IPT, metadata | 0000-0002-0846-9116 |
| José Laurindo Campos dos Santos | The National Institute for Amazonian Research - INPA | Brazil | Database System, Data Policy, Scientific Data, Biodiversity Data, Semantic Web, Ontology Design, Knowledge Management, Data Integration, Data Quality, Scientific Data Modelling | |
| Ana Cruz Botello | GBIF Spain | Spain | Birds, impact assessment, citizen science, education | |
| Eduardo Dalcin | Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | Biodiversity Information Management and Delivery | 0000-0002-4661-0272 |
| Gergana Daskalova | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | Biodiveristy, biodiversity change, population change, land-use change, climate change, global change ecology, data synthesis, attribution | 0000-0002-5674-5322 |
| Andrew Davies | University of Rhode Island | United States | Reef-forming species, deep sea, coastal, marine | 0000-0002-2087-0885 |
| Joshua Dazi | Nigerian Conservation Foundation | Nigeria | Ornithology | |
| Eduardo de la Cruz | Gobierno de Navarra | Spain | Fungi, insects, mammals | |
| Jurate De Prins | Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences | Belgium | Lepidoptera, Taxonomy, Databases, Tropical, New Discovery, Collections, Afrotropical, Neotropical, Global | 0000-0001-7637-5755 |
| Torsten Dikow | Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History | United States | Diptera, Asilidae, taxonomy, cybertaxonomy, sharing research data, open access to biodiversity data | 0000-0003-4816-2909 |
| Dag Endresen | University of Oslo | Norway | biodiversity informatics, agrobiodiversity, machine learning, food security, persistent identifiers, research infrastructure | 0000-0002-2352-5497 |
| Nina Filippova | Yugra State University | Russian Federation | Fungi, macromycetes, mycology, taiga, peatland, Siberia | 0000-0002-9506-0991 |
| Rafaela Forzza | Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | Biodiversity database; Herbarium database; Data quality Collection | 0000-0002-7035-9313 |
| Rui Figueira | GBIF Portugal, Instituto Superior de Agronomia | Portugal | Ecology, ecological niche modelling, geostatistics, multivariate data analysis, biodiversity informatics, lichens, biomonitoring | 0000-0002-8351-4028 |
| Anders Gravbrøt Finstad | Norwegian University of Technology and Science, Department of Natural History | Norway | Ecology, biodiversity-informatics, distribution modelling, freshwater ecology, climate change impacts | 0000-0003-4529-6266 |
| David Galicia | University of Navarra | Spain | Small mammals, biogeography, morphometry, ecology, spatial distribution, niche modelling, natural history collections accessibility | 0000-0002-2585-9888 |
| Jean Cossi Ganglo | University of Abomey-Calavi | Benin | Biodiversity, Forest ecosystems, management, sustainable uses, biodiversity informatics, data, publications, data publication, data uses | 0000-0003-4212-6448 |
| Alexis Garretson | George Mason University | United States | Bioinformatics, biodiversity, ecological informatics, data stewardship, metadata, phenology | 0000-0002-7260-0131 |
| Chris Gentle | Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute | Australia | Data sharing to improve our understanding of the cumulative impact of actions over time | |
| Florencia Grattarola | Biodiversidata | Uruguay | Macroecology, species distribution, citizen science, Neotropical, Uruguayan Savannah | 0000-0001-8282-5732 |
| Olly Griffin | WCS Cambodia | Cambodia | Terrestrial mammals, primates, wildlife population montioring | 0000-0003-2916-7560 |
| Rob Guralnick | Florida Museum of Natural History | United States | Biodiversity informatics, systems and taxonomy, global monitoring | |
| Jen Hammock | National Museum of Natural History | United States | data integration, identifiers, ontology terms, graph data | 0000-0002-9943-2342 |
| Mason Heberling | Carnegie Museum of Natural History | United States | plant physiological ecology, invasion biology, functional traits, phenology, herbarium, global change biology | 0000-0003-0756-5090 |
| Angel Hjarding | University of North Carolina Charlotte | United States | Biodiversity conservation, remote sensing, community science, public science | 0000-0002-9279-4893 |
| Tsuyoshi Hosoya | National Museum of Nature and Science | Japan | Biodiversity, databasing, Fungi, inventory, systematics, phylogeny, specimen database | 0000-0002-9943-2342 |
| Alice Hughes | Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences | China | Conservation, biodiversity, endemism, data standards, modelling, spatial analysis, trend analysis, biogeography, methodologies | 0000-0002-7688-5517 |
| Luke Jimu | Bindura University of Science Education | Zimbabwe | Forest science, forest pathology, metagenomics, mycobiomes | 0000-0002-4651-001X |
| Nicole Kearney | Biodiversity Heritage Library, Museums Victoria | Australia | Digitisation, digitization, biodiversity, heritage, literature, museums, museum, libraries, library, transcription, online publishing, DOIs, collections, digital preservation, metadata, science communication, open access, data, interoperability, editing | 0000-0003-2883-0906 |
| Wouter Koch | Artsdatabanken | Norway | Citizen science, machine learning, open data, licenses | 0000-0001-9025-9486 |
| Nataliya Kovtonyuk | Central Siberian Botanical Garden, SB RAS | Russian Federation | Taxonomy, biodiversity, open data, Primula L., Primulaceae, digitization, herbarium collection | 0000-0002-4018-6634 |
| Paula Lightfoot | Newcastle University | United Kingdom | Remote sensing, GIS, marine, coastal, UAVs, diving | 0000-0003-2019-7966 |
| Kent McFarland | Vermont Center for Ecostudies | United States | Conservation biology, Lepidoptera, Aves, Bombus, biogeography, historical data, New England | 0000-0001-7809-5503 |
| Oliver Meyn | Hadoop & Big Data Consultant | Canada | Software, distributed systems, data architecture | |
| Tafadzwa Muzira | Zimbabwe Youth Biodiversity Network | Zimbabwe | Lantana, Camara , anquila labiata | |
| Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa | University of Science and Technology Malawi | Malawi | Avifauna, ecology, conservation biology, biodiversity informatics, ecosystem services | 0000-0002-5364-9853 |
| Isabel Neves | Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências | Portugal | Biodiversity informatics, data quality, Mozambique, natural history collections, Mammalia, species distribution modelling, digitization | 0000-0002-1545-1512 |
| Nicky Nicolson | Biodiversity Informatics & Spatial Analysis, RBG Kew / Department of Computer Science, Brunel University London | United Kingdom | Biodiversity informatics, machine learning, data mining, museum collections, botany | 0000-0003-3700-4884 |
| Erlend Nilsen | Norwegian Institute for Nature Research | Norway | Ecology, monitoring, open science, reproducibility | 0000-0002-5119-8331 |
| Charles Nyanga | Ministry of Agriculture | Zambia | Marine Science, Biodiversity, Climate Impacts, Conservation | 0000-0001-5829-5700 |
| Takeshi Osawa | Tokyo Metropolitan University | Japan | Biodiversity Informatics, Macro Ecology, Spatial Analysis, Virtual Ecology | 0000-0002-2098-0902 |
| Julia Pawłowska | University of Warsaw | Poland | Fungi, biodiversity, phylogenetics, evolution, Mucoromycota, endohyphal bacteria | 0000-0003-4914-5182 |
| Fatima Parker-Allie | South African National Biodiversity Institute | South Africa | Biodiversity informatics, species distribution modelling, marine modelling, strategic engagements and partnerships, global change, food security | 0000-0002-0004-9504 |
| Anabela Plos | Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia" MACN-CONICET / Sistema Nacional de Datos Biológicos SNDB | Argentina | Digitization, biological data, biodiversity data, Botany, Asteraceae, Apiaceae, data portals, data quality, checklist | 0000-0003-3877-7408 |
| Petra Pop Ristova | Milieukontakt Macedonia | North Macedonia | Aquatic, environment, microorganisms, biodiviersity, ecology, marine | 0000-0001-6215-4257 |
| Oleh Prylutskyi | V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University | Ukraine | Fungi, remote sensing, habitat mapping, GIS, semi-arid zone, forests | 0000-0001-5730-517X |
| Tsiky Rabetrano | REBIOMA | Madagascar | Biodivesity informatics, data sharing, species, conservation planning | |
| Niels Raes | NLBIF | Netherlands | Biodiversity, biogeography, global climate change, land use change, SDM/ENM | 0000-0002-4329-4892 |
| Prabhakar Rajagopal | India Biodiversity Portal | India | Biodiversity Informatics, India Biodiversity Portal, Tropics, developing countries | 0000-0001-9320-5942 |
| Heimo Rainer | Naturhistorisches Museum Wien | Austria | Annonaceae, Flora, Austria, Tropics, Herbarium | 0000-0002-5963-349X |
| Sophia Ratcliffe | NBN Trust | United Kingdom | Biodiversity Informatics, data visualisation, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, data quality and standards | 0000-0001-9284-7900 |
| Constance Rinaldo | Biodiversity Heritage Library / Librarian, Museum of Comparative Zoology | United States | Biodiversity, Peromyscus, Microtus, Sorex, ecology, behavior, information resources | 0000-0002-8339-728X |
| Alexey P. Seregin | Lomonosov Moscow State University | Russian Federation | Botany, Tracheophyta, flora, herbaria, database, imaging, data mining | 0000-0002-1824-7453 |
| Maxim Shashkov | Institute of Mathematical Problems of Biology RAS – the Branch of the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences | Russian Federation | Earthworm ecology, ecosystem modelling, UAV and remote sensing | 0000-0002-1328-8758 |
| Sara Si-moussi | INRA / INRIA / Montpellier University | France | Applied computer science, computational ecology, ecoinformatics, ecological modeling, community ecology | 0000-0002-0519-8699 |
| Laurens Sparrius | FLORON Plant Conservation Netherlands | Netherlands | Citizen science, biodiversity monitoring, taxonomy, vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens | 0000-0002-4925-9289 |
| John Starmer | Maui Nui Natural History | United States | echinodermata, octocorallia, coral reef, evolution, biogeography | 0000-0003-2926-5048 |
| Dirk Steinke | Centre for Biodiversity Genomics | Canada | DNA barcoding, metabarcoding, metagenomics, eDNA, SDM, mapping, diversity indicies, molecular evolution, fish, mitonuclear evolution, polinators | 0000-0002-8992-575X |
| Rob Stevenson | University of Massachusetts Boston | United States | Environmental science, biodiversity science, citizen science, biodiversity, habitat loss, invasive species, extinction, extirpation, population declines, science methods, data quality, data mobilization, biodiversity standards, vocabularies, ontologies, user interface design | 0000-0003-1617-5895 |
| Rachel Tierney | Scottish Wildlife Trust/Scottish Biodiversity Information Forum | United Kingdom | Biological recording networks, data sharing, biodiversity data mobilisation, data infrastructure, open data, partnerships, biological recording | |
| Anton Van de Putte | Scientific Committtee for Antarctic Research | Belgium | Southern Ocean, Antarctica, Ecosystem assessment | 0000-0003-1336-5554 |
| Vigdis Vandvik | University of Bergen | Norway | Biodiversity, vegetation, ecosystem functioning, global change experiments, management, conservation | 0000-0003-4651-4798 |
| John Wieczorek | VertNet | Argentina | Biodiversity informatics, data mobilization, data quality, tools, software development, training, georeferencing, research, standards, vocabularies | 0000-0003-1144-0290 |
| Bevan Weir | Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research | New Zealand | Mycology, bacteriology, plant pathology, New Zealand | 0000-0003-2580-0701 |
| Daniel Zacarias | Universidade Eduardo Mondlane | Mozambique | Climate change, species distribution modelling, spatial prioritization, macroecology, biogeography | 0000-0002-9617-0535 |
Other volunteer roles within the GBIF network
GBIF has an open call for volunteer mentors, who provide more hands-on assistance and training for our capacity enhancement activities. A Biodiversity Open Data Ambassador can also serve as a GBIF mentor.