Biodiversity_Next Conference

Association of Association Executives

The Association of Association Executives supports employees and officers of associations to enhance their skills and knowledge and to improve their own performance as well as that of their association.

International
Kingston upon Hull, GB
www.associationexecutives.org

Success achieved

Website

https://biodiversitynext.org/

Project dates

July 2018 - October 2019

Project team

Steering Board - ultimate decision-making body to:

• Provide guidance on key directions of the conference;
• Appoint members of the Programme Committee and Local Organising Committee;
• Ensure the event meets its high level objectives.

Programme Committee:

• Overall design and execution of the Conference scientific programme,
• Selection of session conveners and plenary speakers,
• Editorial work regarding the submission, review and selection of abstracts,
• Communication with conference participants.

Tools & Systems

•  Activo - conference registration software
• Arpha Writing Tool - collaborative authoring, reviewing and publishing software.
• Conference Compass - event app (during the event) programme and logistical information.
• Padlet - Online discussion board –  to design in real time the ‘Unconference’
• SurveyMonkey - post conference survey
• Wordpress - website for combined and updated information of the event. 
• Zoom - distributed conference planning.

Introduction

The world and its future is currently at risk due to the convergence of two anthropogenic forces, biodiversity loss and climate change, that if left unchecked can have catastrophic consequences for humanity in terms of climate, nature and food production. Only the collective global political will acting on solid scientific knowledge will ensure a safe future for the planet. Only the collaboration of scientists, politicians, decision makers, and practitioners can mitigate the impending threat. Addressing big global challenges, however, not only requires unprecedented collaboration but also availability and access to digitised scientific data that accurately mirrors the wholeness and complexity of life on earth so that it can be understood and studied in its rightful context . . . e.g., so that changes in populations or species distribution can be analyzed over space and through time, so that ecosystem dynamics can be modeled and analysed in response to changing parameters, or so that data-intensive genomics or satellite imaging technologies can be effectively integrated in developing conservation policies.

The one thing all of these examples have in common is the scale of data needed to accurately make these assessments. That is, huge amounts of comprehensive data is needed to follow populations or species distributions over space, through time, and/or across taxonomies. Likewise, large amounts of integrated data is needed to model ecosystems and analyse them under their many changing parameters. Until recently, the needed data has lain in various institutional resources, mostly undigitised and unpublished with continuums and relationships of species populations and ecosystems virtually impossible to reconstruct over time periods or geographic areas, because data resources have been physically fragmented by institution, country borders, or data amassed with a narrow focus (during a specific time period or expedition, or covering a specific geography), etc. Even the seemingly simple proposition of studying a single species is potentially thwarted also because data pertaining to a single specimen or species may be physically located in various repositories (e.g., 20thC specimen data at a natural science institution, its genome sequenced in the 21stC at a genomics lab, data of like specimens from a specific period or geographic area scattered across various collecting institutions.) Additionally, studying a single species without contextual data pertaining to its at-the-time environmental parameters (climate, geology, vegetation, species interactions, etc.) is generally insufficient.

The holistic vision of a robust, fit-for-purpose, digital data resource for the global biodiversity community integrates specimens, species, and ecosystems with related attributes across multiple dimensions to yield a comprehensive, integrated, knowledge base that mirrors the wholeness and complexity of life on earth. The vision, however, can only be realised by coordinating and implementing the policies, standards, methodologies, and technology to achieve it which is a monumental undertaking of scope, scale, collaboration, planning and execution.  Countries, politicians, and decision makers and institutions must agree on goals and means; common standards must be developed and adopted; methodologies must be aligned or compatible; and technology must make a vast array of disparate, distributed data collection systems interoperable, link them, provide easy global access, and make it appear as a unified whole to the user. 

In recognition of the challenges before us in achieving this vision, the 2019 BiodiversityNext Conference endeavored and succeeded in taking the first steps towards developing a cohesive global strategic approach to data-intensive biodiversity and geodiversity research by bringing together the global biodiversity (informatics) community to share their ideas, perspectives, align effort and standards, identify data gaps and infrastructure disconnects, promote innovation and inspire new generations of researchers.   

Discovery

• Despite previous successful community events, Biodiversity_Next envisaged scale presented a series of new challenges. We worked on the conference business case, analysing previous community behaviours, meetings of equal size and reach, as well as probing into the level of commitment of international stakeholders to support the initiative. A dynamic financial model was delivered as part of the final business case. 
• The business case was presented to a series of key international stakeholder organisations, which committed to the initiative and formed the steering committee of Biodiversity_next. The steering committee was formed by senior management personnel of all participating organisations, to ensure high level representation and optimize decision making processes.
• The financial model examined several scenarios taking into consideration variations across several dimensions of the model. A participation model was also developed by a group of community experts. The participation model considered previous parameters, such as early registrations, surveys on intent to participate, abstract submissions, to deliver predictions on level of participation. Those predictions were incorporated into the financial model and adjustments were made throughout the registration period to ensure a break-even conference.
• Despite all efforts to project the key parameters of the event, we considered this initiative to be entering a largely unmapped territory for our community. As such, we assumed that all previous assumptions of similar community events were at risk. To mitigate those risks, we ensured that we would need to put in place an agile mechanism of re-evaluating several organizational aspects of the event throughout the preparations. Mitigation plans were put in place and adopted by the steering committee early on. These plans were used to guide operational decisions daily, as the financial and participation models were that provided projections for the event were improving in terms of their standard deviation and error margins.  

Objectives

• Convince major stakeholders of the importance of developing a global biodiversity information strategy, 
• Promote innovation in biodiversity & geodiversity information science and applications,
• Share and enhance community data standards and information management practices,
• Expand domain reach to new audiences (incl. scientific, policy and industry),
• Inspire new generations to enthusiastically embark on data-intensive bio- and geodiversity sciences,
• Build community consensus on pivotal technical and sociocultural aspects of the community practices.

Our goal is to integrate and link global biodiversity and geodiversity data yielding an accessible, robust, comprehensive knowledge base and to see it actively used worldwide. Our conference theme "better data - better science - better policies" sums up our data-train vision. Working together to produce robust information and infrastructure facilitates better science, which in turn supports effective, responsive local-to-global policies. With four conference tracks (i.e. policy and coordination, science, infrastructure, standards), we aimed to promote innovation, share and enhance community data standards, reach new stakeholders (i.e. scientific, policy, and industry), inspire new generations to tackle data-intensive science, and build community momentum and motivation to align our efforts.

Several organisations integrated their annual meeting into Biodiversity Next to bring data standards (TDWG), international data (GBIF, iDigBio), researchers (LifeWatch, CETAF), and a new EU initiative (DiSSCo) together. This union provided a global conversation at an unprecedented scale. Naturalis and NLBIF hosted this event with support from the Dutch government Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science.

Data standards are key to implementing a shared data and infrastructure vision, and any shared resources. The Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) organisation led the way in realising this conference to illustrate the foundation that TDWG standards and data mobilisation protocols provide. Each of the co-organisers plays a critical role from local to planet-wide efforts to address environmental issues using ever-larger data piles to find solutions. Together, we build a clearer way to move forward.

Timeline

• July 2018 - Call for paper
• September - Create timeline
• September - October:
  • Canvass for structural components/ideas - European institutions
  • Canvass for structural components/ideas - American institutions
  • Canvass for structural components/ideas - Asian institutions
  • Canvass for structural components/ideas - South American institutions
  • Canvass for structural components/ideas - African institutions
  • Create contact list
  • Invite selected keynote/plenary speakers
  • Preliminary budget for PC
  • Code of Conduct refined for b_n
• October:
  • Review of Code of Conduct
  • Post Code of Conduct on website & reference w/registration
• October - November - Call for proposals distributed through contact list incl. chosen structural components
• December:
  • Review proposals
  • Announce successful proposals
  • Release overall outline of program
• December 2018 - February 2019 - Call for abstracts
• December 2018 - April 2019 - Review abstracts (ongoing as they arrive)
• April 2019:
  • Create programme
  • Post provisional program link on website
• November 2018 - end of March 2019 - Open early registration
• April - May - Open regular registration

Activities

This conference was two years in the planning. An international open call went out in July of 2018 asking for member nominations for the Biodiversity Next Program Committee (PC). The PC met regularly (weekly and monthly) for 18 months leading up to the conference to guide selection of conference topics, plan plenaries and select keynotes, design parallel sessions, and lead the abstract submission and review processes.

Outside companies were contracted for different things, such as communication, ticketing, materials and video production.

Organisations financing the meeting formed an 8-member Steering Board to guide the development of this event and support the 14-member PC. Each organisation contributed between €8-20K each, with some also offering in-kind support.

Conference attendees joined as interviewees in the making of meeting videos and contributed novel content by suggesting and voting for "unconference" topics that were then offered at the event.

Efforts made by the JRS Foundation ensured that the southern hemisphere was well-represented in two special sessions: Africa in the Picture, and Biodiversity Informatics: Perspectives from the Global South.

In total, almost 800 attendees from 77 countries participated in this novel event. Attendees submitted 368 abstracts, published in the open access Biodiversity Information Science and Standards Journal (BISS). See https://biss.pensoft.net/collection/115.

It is notable that 68% of the participants noted this to be their first TDWG conference, greatly expanding its sphere of influence. Roughly 2/3 of the cohort were male, and 1/3 female.

Special pre-event workshops, such as Biodiversity Informatics 101 at Biodiversity Next, were designed to offer participants an introduction and preview of the conference topics because many of them were new to this broader community. See products at https://github.com/tdwg/curriculum/blob/master/biodiversity-informatics-101/bi101_schedule_2019.md.

Other pre-conference workshops offered the chance to work on such topics as cloud-based tools for ecological modelling, pan-European biodiversity modelling, and managing authority files for people names.

Innovation

To be innovative, one needs to do better than what’s already been done, and/or do things very differently. This conference offered both innovation and strategies:

• We joined our regular annual meetings offering much greater networking and alignment opportunities across global infrastructures. 
• One of the most innovative approaches was the organization of the ‘Unconference’. During this session, Biodiversity Next attendees had the opportunity to take control of the conference programme for 60 minutes of unbridled discussion, demonstration and debate. The unconference session provided space for seven proposers of the most popular topics to initiate each discussion, with the results reported back at a 30-minute plenary that immediately followed the Unconference. Anybody could propose any topic for the Unconference through the links provided during the conference. Topics were voted on by attendees, with the seven most successful sessions announced soon after on the same day. 
• Never before did we have a joint-worldwide, nominated program committee. Adding this step made the whole process of planning the event more inclusive and egalitarian. 
• We published all proceedings in a cutting-edge journal offering traditional and alternative metrics to track our efforts collectively in reaching new audiences.
• Biodiversity_Next gave special attention to capacity-building, exposure and building the network of organisations who collect, manage, and disseminate biodiversity data and information in Africa. A generous grant by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation sponsored conference attendance by participants from Africa, two sessions specific to Global South biodiversity informatics issues/challenges, and, case studies for building a global biodiversity information alliance, as well as a working session on a data strategy for Africa. The Foundation’s hope is to increase understanding of African biodiversity information needs and barriers, to ensure that African interests in biodiversity data information systems remain in the global picture, and to draw a roadmap for future cooperation.

Marketing

The communication before, during and after the event aims to:

• Provide clear, personal communication that resonates with the target audience (see below)
• Supports the goals of the event
• Presents a uniform branding and style both in the communication and the staging of the event
• Helps build a community around the events

Target audience:

• Early career scientists (new generation) and
• Established scientists working in data-intensive disciplines of biological and geological diversity science.
• E-infrastructures operators, 
• Data managers,
• Science policy makers
• Stakeholders.

All data-intensive biodiversity and geodiversity disciplines, including (but not limited to):
e-taxonomy, biodiversity and ecological informatics, biodiversity and geodiversity data standards, natural science collections information, citizen science etc.

The scale of the conference, the combination of organisations present, the ‘must-be-there’ programme are all part of the unique selling points of the event.

Overall:
The conference itself and the communication before, during and after will be dynamic, interactive, respectful and inviting.

We aim to welcome between 400 - 600 attendees. 

For the opening session on Tuesday 22nd we also invite policy makers and delegates and stakeholders from public office and other (governmental) bodies. 

For the participants of the opening session we want to show them how unique this conference is:

• Because all of the relevant experts are being brought together to work on this
• Because we desperately need to work on the biodiversity crisis 

Key messages:

• Biodiversity_Next. Better data - better science - better policies
• Building a global infrastructure for biodiversity data. Together.
• Time is running out. Why we must act now - Biodiversity – the variety of life on the planet – is essential for our survival and well being on Earth. We literally live and breathe nature. Only if nature thrives, man can thrive.

Branding:

We’ve created a visual design for the event. We emphasize two elements in the design:

• Focus on the word Next to emphasize the importance of taking next steps and
• Focus on ‘datafying’ all lifeforms. 

We’ve chosen the datafied beetle as the primary visual design. Secondary elements are a leaf, a crab, a deer and a bird. This is obviously not a complete overview of all life forms but a representation. Secondary elements are to be used sparingly and as an interesting and visual fun addition to the beetle. 

The color scheme is also set and has a low-key green background with red as a signifier. 
Branding in words:

• We use "Biodiversity_Next" (and add 2019 (for the abstracts))
• Hashtag #biodiversitynext for Facebook and Twitter
• We never use the visual style in words.

Strategy

Before, during and after the event we mainly use 2 strategies:

• Collaborate with partners to spread the word
• Collaborate with community

Collaborate with partners:

1. Our joint-organisers have a huge network to spread information about the event and encourage them to come. We created a toolkit for the partners that’s customisable to meet the needs of their community.
2. This also means creating joint messages for more impact and engagement.
3. Set up a standing communication zoom meeting with the communication liaisons of the joint-partners.
4. Other forms are the collaboration with sponsors and other partners such as Leiden Marketing.

Collaborate with community:

Community engagement will build as conference content (keynotes, programs, partnerships) evolves and materialises. With the help of partners we will use concrete means such as announcements, newsletter, quotes and questions especially right before and during the event to solidify community engagement.

Means of communication

• Website - combined and updated information of the event
• Mobile App (during the event) - programme + logistical information
• Newsletter (for everyone signed up via website) - information about event + Call to Action to register
• Mailing (for everyone registered) - information for attendance + getting excited about coming
• Press release - for big names and announcements (before, during or after)
• Twitter - engagement and interaction with ideas and topics (assets: use of hashtags and search capability for topics, people, business, organisations)
• Facebook - engagement and interaction with people (assets: use of hashtags and search capability for topics, people, business, organisations)

Challenges

Community engagement

Since Biodiversity_Next was designed as the largest community event we ever organized, we had to ensure that the community buy-in was at a level that allowed us to deliver this milestone event. Effective international communications, low participation barriers and a convincing scientific programme were aspects that we had to get right in order to be able to attract our international audience at the reach expected. To further support the milestone character of the event, we invited and achieved to host a series of co-located events around the Biodiversity_Next dates. Those events included the business meetings of many of the co-organising partners and would ensure a minimum number of participants. A strong financial commitment by the co-organising partners also allowed us to lower the participation barriers. We especially put a lot of emphasis on African participation with a dedicated Grant for supporting travel and subsistence costs as well as a cross-cutting ‘Africa in the picture’ theme across our scientific programme.

Financial feasibility

The financial concerns were of course present throughout. We did however mitigate the major risks by successfully covering all fixed costs of the event through the early commitments of the co-organisers and linking most of the variable (depending on number of participants) costs to the conference registration.       

Logistics

Despite this event not being one among the category of very large international conferences, it still posed a major challenge for our community, as it significantly surpassed any previous similar event. Furthermore, it was largely organized using internal expertise (among the co-organisers) with only specific aspects of the organisation being contracted out. This has reduced the costs significantly, but also put a significant pressure to several of the communication departments of the conference host (Naturalis Biodiversity Center).  

Complex programme

Similarly, the need for a convincing, robust scientific programme was a big challenge for the international programme committee. The event was organized across four thematic tracks, with a total of 67 parallel sessions over three days. Minimising thematic overlap, provisioning for optimal distribution of participants across sessions, and organizing inspiring keynotes and innovative sessions, were at the heart of the programme committee 16 months efforts. 

Internal communications

The conference management structures included the steering committee, the programme committee and the organizing committee. The three bodies were composed of individuals from across the globe. Clear division of labour and effective in-between them communication was essential for the success of the event. The steering committee chair, played the role of the liaison between the three bodies, assisted by a small group of individuals who participated ex-officio to all three bodies, ensuring good flow of information between them. Issues were addressed ad-hoc by the chair or brought to the attention of the steering committee for action.

Achievements

The most impressive measure of the conference’s success towards achieving its goals is represented in the compiled results and many positive comments of the post-conference survey. The first step towards achieving consensus and galvanizing action for any objective is to gather and connect stakeholders and other interested parties in a collaborative environment, and BiodiversityNext made a significant first step in that direction. The importance of this strategy is backed-up by ~25% of the 700+ conference attendees who responded to a post-conference survey indicating that their main reasons for attending the conference were networking (71%), opportunities for collaboration (63%), and subject matter (63%).  Another 96% of those respondents stated that they liked (16%), really liked (43%) or loved (37%) the quality of the conference program. So BiodiversityNext succeeded in bringing together the global biodiversity (informatics) community at an unprecedented scale supported by national governments and international organisations to share their ideas, expand professional networks, identify opportunities for collaboration, and align effort towards a common goal while offering a meaningful, high quality program. The symposia offered a myriad of opportunities to share new ideas for cross-disciplinary research and demonstrate new tools for data analysis and services. For example, a new biodiversity informatics software developers group formed as a result of this conference.

The needs of young researchers were specifically addressed in a customized session, Facilitating Capacity Building of Young Researchers with several survey respondents identifying it as one of their four top session highlights. One young researcher was inspired by ‘the opportunity to network with other researchers, organizations, and to meet in person pioneers in the research areas I am interested in. Also, as a young researcher, it [conference impact] will also give me a chance to widen my horizon and give [sic] useful pointers to in building my career.’ 

Innovation is inherent to the field of biodiversity informatics whether expressed in the futuristic visions of the conference’s keynote speakers (mega-genomics used to identify dark taxa, earth surveillance of biodiversity, upcycling cow waste, or bulletproof skin using spider silk) or in the sessions on machine learning and AI, virtual research environments, or the latest technology in high volume registration. The conference was fodder for the nerdiest nerd to get excited about and become inspired.

Biodiversity_Next paid special attention to capacity-building, exposure and building the network of organizations who collect, manage, and disseminate biodiversity data and information in Africa. Two relevant sessions specific to Global South biodiversity informatics issues/challenges, and, case studies for building a global biodiversity information alliance were sponsored, as well as a working session on a data strategy for Africa. The JRS Biodiversity Foundation supported conference participation from Africa as well as special events to increase understanding of African biodiversity information needs and barriers, to ensure African interests in biodiversity data information systems remain in the global picture, and draw a roadmap for future cooperation. 


New audiences were reached as 68% of the participants noted this to be their first TDWG conference, greatly expanding its sphere of influence. Special pre-event workshops, such as Biodiversity Informatics 101 at Biodiversity Next, were designed to offer new participants an introduction and preview of the conference topics. See products at https://github.com/tdwg/curriculum/blob/master/biodiversity-informatics-101/bi101_schedule_2019.md

Efforts to build community consensus and foster collaboration in the Alliance for Biodiversity Knowledge (https://www.allianceforbio.org/) were strengthened, leading to the submission of some new grant proposals to support this work. The resulting journal publication offers long-lasting citable evidence of our needs, our ideas, and our progress.

Targets & Statistics

• Registered delegates: 787, of which 347 presenting.
• Abstracts: 429 submitted of which 367 (85.5%) accepted and published. Co-authored by 1013 co-authors, of which 42% were affiliated to at least one of the convening organizations.
• Traction (people never attending any of the previous TDWG, CETAF, GBIF or iDigBio conferences): 45.5% of registrants, 36% of speakers, 58% of co-authors.

• 

  93 countries were represented in the conference: 77 by registered delegates plus a further 16 by co-authors. 69% of European, 55% of African, 50% of Oceanian, 42% of Asian, and 28% of American and Caribbean countries were represented.
• The largest national contingent was that of the US with 92 delegates. The host country, The Netherlands, came second with 82.
• Over 58% of speakers were affiliated with research: academia, museums, or research institutions, while 17% were affiliated with administrations or various national and international infrastructures.
• As respects to the initial expectations, the conference attendance exceeded by 31% the most optimistic target. Out of the potential universe of all people directly or indirectly involved in the field over the past decade, projected to fall within the scope of the conference, or estimated to having been reached by news or notices, 17% participated as co-authors and 13% attended.

• 

  With 300 affiliated participants, Biodiversity_Next has been the largest gathering of TDWG members ever, exceeding by 11% the previous record set in 2009 in Montpellier and by 58% the average of the last decade. Contributions by TDWG members had never been so numerous either: a 80% higher than normal.
• Contributions concentrated on the Infrastructures and Science tracks (72%). Together with the Standards and Policy tracks, 48 sessions were held. 

Financials

• The financial basis was a break-even.
• Total invested by the association for the event was €80,800.
• Additional staff was 8 months @ 4 FTU for conference organization and 5 months @ 0.3 FTU for Africa in the Picture coordination.
• Total amount spent was €366,455, total income €350,111.
• Return on Investment is hard to measure, but we feel the event sparked a sense of need to cooperate. Silos communicated. It was easier to find sponsors for in-kind contributions than for in cash contributions. The contribution from JRS Foundation dedicated to the African track was quite remarkable. There was a break-even for this special activity.

What would we do differently?

• As positive as most of the post conference survey comments were, there was also constructive criticism and practical suggestions for improvement. Amongst the most often cited referred to the size of the conference, i.e., the conference was too big in scope and volume of options. Specifically, there were too many parallel sessions. Attendees wanted to attend more presentations, missed ones they wanted to attend, or had difficulty choosing between the large selection. This could be addressed next time in multiple ways by (i) reducing the number of parallel sessions and having a more focused program, (ii) extending the length of the conference, or (iii) recording and archiving all presentations, however, physical presence at the presentation was preferred because it allows participation in discussions and networking. More time between talks should be considered for discussion and questions, and physically moving to the next location. 
• Consider livestream and video recording to reach a more global audience including underrepresented countries, enhance capacity, and reduce carbon emissions.
• Ensure speed, quality and reach of Wi-Fi for general accessibility, facilitating use of the conference app, viewing abstracts, and in-conference updates, interaction and voting.
• Pay close attention to regional, gender and ethnic diversity particularly in selecting authoritative speakers as in panel discussions.
• Improve conference app to include conference abstracts, better integration of identifying information [abstract titles, session, presenter (contact) info] and/or more metadata (abstract title, keywords) pertaining to presentations to improve search and usability, minimise notifications, better app instructions (make a video), time zone reconciliation, and capability for attendees to network. Consider other platforms (web, Blackberry).
• Add a poster session in one specific physical area.
• More quantity and better selection of food for people with specific food preferences or allergies. Larger ratio of vegetarian/vegan food to non-vegetarian food, as non-vegetarians can eat vegetarian food but the opposite is not true. Identify pre-conference on the website as to whether food will be provided so that people on budgets can plan accordingly.
• More networking opportunities in terms of time and places. Consider adding another social event for networking, and compiling a list of attendees, their affiliations, and email addresses. 

Advice

BiodiversityNext is not among the large international conferences of this world. The scale or format of the conference was not unique compared with many other international conferences. What BiodiversityNext brought to the table, however, was a milestone opportunity for an entire community of practice to join forces in a way never attempted before. BiodiversityNext went way above acting as a yearly catch-up and transformed itself into an opportunity to refine and to some extend re-define our mission as a community, to re-set our objectives and discuss our collective methods. 

In this sense, the conference benefited from a community momentum that was forming over the last few years. Its success did not come from its numbers, though unique for our community, but from its aspirational targets. From the outset we handled BiodiversityNext as a tool, a mechanism through which we could concretely set our roadmap for the community actions. We clearly identified the expected outputs and build a programme that supported the discussions towards those outputs.

For such community milestones to be successful we need to root them to clear community needs. We built on those needs to also deliver an enthusiastic collaboration environment. Provide provocative aspects on our approach and give the space and time to participants to develop their narratives and interact in a safe and respectful framework.

Feedback & Testimonials

Ninety-six percent of post-conference survey respondents (~25% of attendees) said they ‘liked’, ‘really liked’ or ‘loved’ the overall quality of the conference program. Post conference survey results.

“It was a valuable opportunity to participate in a Conference of the first of its kind where major players in biodiversity informatics (GBIF, CETAF, IDIGBIO, LIFE WATCH, DiSSCo and etc …) joined forces to develop a global biodiversity information strategy to help secure the earth’s geological and biological wealth.”

- Edita Zekjirovikj, Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of North Macedonia

“Biodiversity_Next Conference was a great opportunity to improve my knowledge and collect information related to nature protection information systems, in general. Each of the conference’s co-organisers made a great effort to present the current trends, programs, activities and collaborations in the field of biodiversity informatics (data using, managing and sharing), and to inform the conference’s audience with upcoming initiatives and projects.”

- Adi Habul, Environmental Fund of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

“I want to thank JRS for supporting my travel to the Netherlands. This conference has given me lots of opportunities for networking and forging collaborations with several individuals and institutions. I am leading digitisation activity of the Ethiopian National Herbarium.” 

- Post-conference survey respondent.

“As a young researcher, it will also give me a chance to widen my horizon and give useful pointers to in building my career.”

- Post-conference survey respondent

“It has been a huge privilege to lead and work with such a great team of partners who put enormous effort and enthusiasm in preparing and presenting the materials to the conference audience. The conference was indeed very informative and a great chance to spend time with organisers and members of the biodiversity community but also to share and exchange knowledge and learn new tools in biodiversity information science.” 

- Azra Velagić – Hajrudinović, GIZ/Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe – Implementation of Biodiversity Agreements

“The main achievement for me was hope . Hope for museums and hope for taxonomy. I started doing a PhD on the same subject thinking I was mostly alone on [sic] the endeavour of putting both subjects forward. However, to see such an amazing group of people creating the basis for biodiversity studies on specimens and collections is incredible.”

- Post-conference survey respondent

“Biodiversity_Next marked a key step towards a global biodiversity information strategy, its wide success and enthusiastic reception from different stakeholders and the large audience proves how much our research communities and policy makers seek more opportunities to work together and establish new synergies."

- Christos Arvanitidis, CEO of LifeWatch ERIC

@DiSSCoEU speaks looking into the future, where digital #collections will make natural history collections better than the sum of their parts to then build the high speed train to reach goal of better harmony in nature. #biodiversitynext

@biodiv_next conference addressed questions like: how do we stop #biodiversity loss? how can we speed up #research? how can we make predictions on #global biodiversity #changes?
Anton Potapov @AntonCollembola It was amazing to see all the great platforms that are being developed and people who are working on them! Really inspiring @biodiv_next #Ecotaxonomy

Tom August @TomAugust85 Here are 4000 tweets from #biodiversitynext summarised in a single image, seeing 'People' and 'Data' side-by-side is very symbolic of many of the conversations I had this week. Thank you @biodiv_next Code: https://buff.ly/361SoUV

Sander Pieterse @zzherc Thanks to all speakers and attendees of our #BiodiversityNext SS47 session on AI for biodiversity research today: you made it great. Turnout so big we had to move second part of the session to a bigger room.

Wider impact

The realisation of the Biodiversity Next Conference, a progressive, non-traditional meeting, gives all of us hope and a new vision for how we can build a global human and cyberinfrastructure for biodiversity data. Together. The ‘Leiden Declaration': create a global dataset of life on our planet.

Key actors got together at the conference to write a white paper outlining the road forward: the ‘Leiden Declaration', a commitment towards better data, better science, better policy: ‘Scientific infrastructures are essential to generate services in delivering a comprehensive, accessible and actionable body of biological and geological evidence-based knowledge of global reach. An increasing number of national, regional and international level initiatives generate, integrate and share information on the natural world, highlighting their growing importance to underpin the science-policy interplay and decision-making process. Significant data gaps were identified as well as disconnects between infrastructures, which are needed for a holistic and comprehensive understanding of our planet's biological and geological diversity.'

For other longer-term goals, it remains to be seen, but looks promising. Actually aligning activities and organizations to work in concert requires a long-term vision and careful attention. Several organizations who were involved in Biodiversity Next are hard at work to come up with a plan, a structure, and funding for working on needs central to our needs for robust bio and geo diversity data. The Biodiversity Next conference gave this effort a boost to spur action, and new seats at the table for more groups to participate in solving broader, common issues such as human and organization citation/attribution practices, artificial intelligence for species and trait identification, faster more automated biocollections digitization workflows, data quality integration, API integration, data integration, data ingestion alignment, and workforce development.

We cannot afford to meet like this often, but we appreciate we managed to do it, and would like to do it again at some point in the future.