CYTED was established in 1984 and has 19 country members in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. It fosters cooperation in research and innovation.

The cooperation between CYTED and GBIF focuses on strengthening the biodiversity informatics capacities of iberoamerican scientists and staff via capacity building and training. Among others, these activities may include the establishment and management of biodiversity databases, digitization of collections, data cleaning, geo-referencing, and handling digital images. As part of this collaboration, CYTED also envisages mentoring activities and supporting the GBIF campaigns.