GBIF International Training Events

Training course in Biodiversity information - session 2013, by RMCA

GBIF Secretariat — 02/05/2013 12:26:58

Tervuren (Belgium), 3-28 June 2013. The main objective of this training is to improve the understanding and application of biodiversity information for Sub-Saharan African scientists, university members and students and to increase their participation and ownership in biodiversity informatics.
More specifically :

• To help researchers identify the data from collections, databases and literature that are in their possession and relevant for an on-line publication.
• To involve scientists in digitizing, accessing and sharing data using internationally recognized protocols and tools as those recommended by the GBIF and the Biodiversity Information Standards.
• To enable the use of GIS tools for the visualization of distribution data.

The training will be organized by Biodiversity Information and Cybertaxonomy Cell with the support and funding from the Framework program of the Belgian Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGDC). The concept of “Biodiversity Information” includes monitoring, conservation and technological innovation adapted to small-scale and infrastructure-limited contexts, taxonomy, climate change, collection management, data mining, distribution modeling. Our goal is to promote the conservation of biodiversity by improving the availability and accessibility of biodiversity data, and to facilitate further information gathering.

NOTE: scholarships are available.

Workshop on the promotion of metadata use and data paper publication by GBIF India

GBIF Secretariat — 05/15/2013 09:27:26

Pune (India), 19-21 June 2013. The Wildlife Institute of India in collaboration with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is organizing a training workshop on the "Promotion of Metadata Use and Data Paper Publication” at Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune, India from 19th to 21st June 2013.
This workshop will develop skills and understanding among participants to create metadata for data paper publication. The manuscripts (i.e. draft data papers) can then be submitted for review process to Pensoft's journals Zookeys, PhytoKeys, MycoKeys, BioRisk, NeoBiota, Nature Conservation, etc.

VertNet Biodiversity Informatics Training Workshop II

GBIF Secretariat — 10/19/2012 09:39:37

Boulder (United States of America), 24-28 June 2013. During the five-day course, participants will work closely with trainers to address compelling biodiversity research questions and focus on the entire scope of a research project, including data acquisition, tools for data evaluation, analysis, and project dissemination and outreach. Participants are expected to bring high levels of motivation and desire to learn the fundamentals of biodiversity informatics and become users of cutting edge tools in GIS and modeling although not necessarily expected to have experience in them. The workshop will include large and small group exercises on a common curriculum, as well as the opportunity for participants to discuss and explore their own research goals/questions. Virtual talks by research professionals from across the U.S. will provide opportunities to discuss how others use informatics tools and workflows.

Summer Course Modelling and Mapping Species Distributions

GBIF Secretariat — 04/24/2013 10:38:26

Amsterdam (Netherlands), 1-4 July 2013. The increasing availability of high quality occurrence and abundance data at the species level accompanied by many environmental data layers has boosted the developments in species distribution modeling (SDM). As a result, there are nowadays numerous data-driven modeling tools available for enhancing understanding of ecological systems or generating predictions, which has however not made life easier for most young researchers.

This course aims at introducing the students to the fundamental research questions, to important model assumptions and to several basic data analysis steps. In addition, the most important techniques are introduced to make geo-ecological data accessible in a database and analyze it with appropriate modeling procedures.

This course uses the book 'Mapping species distributions - Spatial inference and prediction' by Janet Franklin (2009, Cambridge university press) as a theoretical basis.

The focus is on understanding data processing and data analysis steps for diverse taxa and work-flows for interpreting model results, rather than computer skills. Notwithstanding this emphasis, a number of software tools are used and explained, such as GIS software to process environmental and species occurrence data and the R environment for SDM.

The course combines short lectures with participant discussions and predominantly hands-on (computer) work. Also data and problems brought in by participants will be analyzed. Participants working with their own data are recommended, and will be supported, to publish their data online through the infrastructure of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

The course is coordinated by Emiel van Loon (Computational Geo-Ecology, UvA) and Cees Hof (the coordinator of NLBIF, the Dutch GBIF-node) and brings in international expertise in different fields.

Building Biodiversity Informatics Institutions Course

GBIF Secretariat — 02/21/2013 16:43:19

Cape Town (South Africa), 23-26 July 2013. This course focuses on development and establishment of institutions that focus on biodiversity informatics. As a consequence, we envision participants as individuals who are more advanced, with the potential to participate in creation of such institutions. See, as examples of such institutions, Mexico's CONABIO (http://www.conabio.gob.mx/), Brazil's CRIA (http://www.cria.org.br/), Costa Rica's INBio (http://www.inbio.ac.cr/en/), Colombia's Humboldt Institute (http://www.humboldt.org.co/iavh/), Australia's Atlas of Living Australia (http://www.ala.org.au/), and South Africa's SANBI (http://www.sanbi.org/), all examples of such institutions, albeit very different from one to the next.
For this course, we will have as 'experts' several personalities who have participated in the establishment of such institutions providing commentary and insight into the process, and giving ideas and strategies for establishment of such institutions in other regions and countries. Special focus will be placed on situations particular to developing-world countries.