Copenhagen is the site of the Secretariat for GBIF, and the inauguration of the Secretariat’s building on the University of Copenhagen campus is one of the major attractions of this meeting. Denmark won the bid to host the Secretariat in an international competition judged at the second meeting of the GBIF Governing Board, which was held in Bonn, Germany in 2001.

Local organisers for the Governing Board meeting include the Danish delegation to GBIF, DanBIF (the Danish national GBIF node), the University of Copenhagen, the Danish Natural Science Research Council, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of the Environment. Attending will be representatives from both developing and developed countries.

On the first day of the meeting, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Helge Sander will present GBIF’s 2003 Ebbe Nielsen Prize for the creative use of digital technologies in addressing biological problems. Following that presentation will be the inauguration of the GBIF Secretariat building at the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen’s University, which will be attended by HRH Prince Henrik and Hans Christian Schmidt, Minister for the Environment.

The final day of the meeting will be an all-day scientific symposium. The symposium is entitled “Founding the Future: On the rock of real data or the sands of speculation?” It will be keynoted by the new Director of the United States National Natural History Museum, Dr. Cristian Samper, and moderated by Dr. John Curran, Assistant Chief of CSIRO Entomology, Australia. Four distinguished speakers from Mexico, Japan, Denmark and the United States complete the programme. For further information on the symposium, see www.gbif.org or contact Meredith A. Lane, Communications Officer for the GBIF Secretariat, for appointments.

Meeting attendees will enjoy other events including a reception at the Carlsberg Academy and a dinner at Danmarks Akvarium.