Global
Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat
Office of the Director
19 January 2004
DIGIT and ECAT 2004 Request for Proposals
We are pleased to announce that the GBIF secretariat is
issuing two 2004 Request for Proposals (RFP), one to provide
seed money for selected projects to digitize and geo-reference
natural history specimen label data and integrate observational records into the GBIF network, and
one to speed up the process of creating an electronic catalogue of
the names of known organisms. These RFPs are part of the DIGIT and
ECAT 2004 work programmes.
See the 2004 ECAT RFP here
(also PDF) and
the 2004 DIGIT RFP here
(also PDF).
Deadline for submission of the pre-proposals is March 2, 2004.
As in 2003, the review of the proposals will be
conducted in a two-step process: First, short pre-proposals will be
evaluated, and based on that evaluation, full proposals will be
specifically requested by the GBIF Secretariat. We have funding
available to support approximately 10 ECAT projects and 14 DIGIT
projects so we plan to request full proposals from approximately the
top 20 ECAT pre-proposals and the top 28 DIGIT pre-proposals.
The 2003 DIGIT Request for Proposals resulted in more
than 130 pre-proposals submissions. Proposals were received from all
around the world and approximately US$710,000 of GBIF seed money was
awarded to the top 17. Successful completion of these 2003 projects
will bring over 1,000,000 specimen records, including over 70,000
digital images of type specimens, online by the end of 2004. The
abstracts of DIGIT projects funded in 2003 are available on GBIF website.
The
2004 DIGIT Request for Proposals is concentrating on
aspects of the digitisation effort that will stimulate the
development of partnerships and networking among natural history
institutions, particularly at the international level, the
development of significant data sets that can be used in support of
global initiatives, and aspects of international training and
capacity building. See the 2004 DIGIT RFP for more specific details.
The 2003 ECAT Request for Proposals resulted in more
than 65 pre-proposal submissions. Twelve projects were awarded a
total of US$500,000 of GBIF seed money. Successful completion of
these projects will result in worldwide nomenclators for several
economically important groups of organisms: fungi, weevils, flies and
mosquitoes, shellfish and squid, the rose family, scale insects, and
thrips. Two other projects will treat the lacewing insects of Africa,
and the true bugs and rove beetles of the world. Funding for three
other projects will augment existing initiatives. The abstracts of
ECAT projects funded in 2003 are available on GBIF website.
The 2004 ECAT Request for Proposals
is focused on the generation of taxonomic resources that would be in
support of international taxonomic activities (e.g. Global Strategy
for Plant Conservation, the Global Taxonomic Initiative or "2010 -
the Global Biodiversity Challenge") and projects that would fill a
significant gap in the catalogue of living organisms.
In
addition, based on our experiences from reviewing the submissions for
the 2003 RPF, we have developed some additional recommendations for
authors to help in preparing submissions.
More
detail about GBIF's Work Programmes and other areas of emphasis can
also be found on GBIF's web site.
We encourage your interest in GBIF, and look forward to
receiving your pre-proposals by 2 March, 2004.
Sincerely yours,
James L. Edwards
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