Terms of Reference for a "Task Group on a Global Strategy and Action Plan for the Mobilisation of Natural History Data"

Objectives

As part of a broader Global Strategy for mobilising Primary Biodiversity Data, GBIF is proposing to catalyse the development of a Global Strategy and Action Plan (GSAP) for the further mobilisation of Natural History Collections (NHC) data worldwide. The GSAP-NHC aims to tackle the following constraints in the current process:

1. Sharing of learning and to initiate, where these don't exist, institutional, national, regional and global strategies and action plans for digitisation and mobilisation of data held by natural history institutions.
2. How to set digitisation priorities (Which parts of the collections should be digitised, and when?)
3. How to effectively mobilise the data present in natural history collections for ongoing and future biodiversity research and knowledge processing (What metadata are needed?)
4. How to provide the Biodiversity Collections Index (BCI) with metadata describing the scope of natural history collections and the current status of their digitisation (How to commit the institutions to ongoing provision of metadata?)

In the process, the Task Group will identify institution or country specific barriers and challenges to the mobilisation of natural history data and propose ways to overcome these, providing input for the development of local, national, regional and thematic action plans. The final report on the GSAP-NHC will provide a framework identifying overarching issues, including specific recommendations for the execution of the plan.

The GSAP-NHC exercise will begin during the 3rd quarter of 2008. The plan will be presented to the GBIF Governing Board in November 2008, and draft recommendations will be presented to the GBIF Governing Board by October/November 2009, with the final report available by January 2010.

Task Group: Mandate

The Task Group is being constituted with the following mandate:

• Develop the schedule and participation for various activities of the GSAP-NHC exercise
• Develop criteria for national, regional and thematic action plan development
• Provide guidance to national, regional and thematic action plan development processes
• Develop a framework for the GSAP-NHC in interaction with the developers of national, regional and thematic action plans
• Develop specific recommendations on various aspects of mobilising natural history data and disseminate the results to multiple players including the GBIF Governing Board

Task Group: Characteristics, Timeline and modus operandi

The Task Group should start functioning from late September 2008 and should remain active until the final report is submitted by January 2010. The Task Group should convene most of its business remotely through mailing-list, wiki, skype and conference calls. Regular physical meetings are not planned but at least one is foreseen in order to formulate the final report.

The Task Group will report through the DIGIT SSC Chair and DIGIT PO at the GBIF Secretariat.

Task Group: Composition

The Task Group should consist of not more than 10 experts in the field of natural history collections management and digitisation, with a proven record of excellent liaison with multinational, multicultural stakeholders. Given that different collection types will require different strategic approaches, representation of the different domains needs to be ensured. Considering the global scale of this exercise an attempt will also be made to maintain regional balance.

Call for nominations

This call is to seek nominations from the Heads of Delegations (HoD) for membership in a GBIF Science Committee mandated "Task Group on a Global Strategy and Action Plan for Mobilisation of Natural History Data".

Please recommend individuals with senior-level expertise in the management and/or digitisation of natural history collections and experience with multinational, multicultural stakeholders. Members of the Task Group will be required to devote considerable time for frequent discussions, conference calls, and timely inputs towards various activities of the entire GSAP exercise. No remuneration for time spent is envisaged.

Please send your recommendations by August 31, 2008 to Vishwas Chavan, Senior Programme Officer for DIGIT (vchavan@gbif.org), indicating if the person you recommended has already been contacted.