Established in January 2007 by the Heritage Council with funding from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and operated by Compass Informatics under a service level agreement, the NBDC will work to make data on Ireland’s biological diversity available for a wide range of specific uses. These will include implementation of international conventions and European directives, monitoring programmes, species distribution mapping and modelling, publications, and documentation of ecological and biogeographical information, among many others.

Ireland joined GBIF and designated the NBDC as its Node on 1 January 2008.

Éamonn Ó Tuama (Senior Programme Officer for Inventory, Discovery, and Access) and Juan Bello (Senior Programme Officer for Nodes) from the GBIF Secretariat visited the Centre on 29-30 May. Over the course of the two days, the NBDC staff, including Centre Director, Dr Liam Lysaght, Ecologists Dr Úna Fitzpatrick and Dr Eugenie Regan, Data Manager Barry O'Neill, Research Officer Andrew Byrne, and Compass Informatics personnel Gearóid Ó Riain and Pavel Janda heard presentations on the GBIF informatics infrastructure and biodiversity standards, data citation issues, and exemplar biodiversity data centres. In turn, NBDC staff provided a preview of the web-based mapping system that NBDC is developing for integrating biodiversity with other data.

The face-to-face meeting proved invaluable for getting to know each other and for informal discussions about how the wider GBIF community can help new nodes, especially during their start-up phase.

The GBIF Secretariat wishes the Irish Node every success as a leading player in the National Biodiversity Plan for Ireland, which aims through a wide programme of activities, to conserve and enhance the country's biodiversity. In particular, we welcome the statement from Mr John Gormley, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government who noted the important role of the Centre in relation to GBIF, stating “Ireland has recently signed up to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), which collates and disseminates biodiversity data from around the globe. It is important that Ireland plays its part in this important initiative and the Centre will be responsible for managing Ireland's interface with the GBIF.” (Ref. Biodiversity Ireland, Bulletin of the National Biodiversity Data Centre, Issue 1 – Spring 2008, p.1; ISSN 2009-0900)