Focus

The European Network for Biodiversity Information (ENBI) and Species 2000-europa are organising a joint demonstration conference. Both projects will demonstrate their achievements and the new possibilities and challenges emerging from their work.

This conference is aimed at the end-users of the software and services developed by these projects. Representatives from government agencies, policy bodies, legislative agencies, scientific institutes, companies and citizens are cordially invited to attend this meeting.

Venue and costs

The meeting will be held on Saturday October 15th, 2005 at the "Naturhistoriska Museet" in Stockholm. Registration, coffee and lunch will be free of charge.

Background

The European Network for Biodiversity Information (ENBI) and Species 2000-europa (Sp2000-europa, also known as EuroCAT) are European Community Fifth Framework projects that will terminate by the end of 2005. Both are so-called infrastructure projects on biodiversity information, aimed at developing advanced IT services to science and society. ENBI is the coordinating network for all relevant EU-projects, while Sp2000-Europa is concentrating on the basic requirements to offer high quality species data. Through these projects the European Community contributes to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Additional information on these projects can be obtained from their websites http://www.enbi.info and http://sp2000europa.org/.

Final Programme

9.30 - 10.00	Registration and coffee (put posters up)
10.00	Chairman Chris Johnson: MAICh Welcome Elisabeth Watson (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet Stockholm)
10.15	FORMAS, the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial PlanningHans-Örjan Nohrstedt (FORMAS, Head of Department of Research)
10.30	What does society need from the biodiversity informatics community?Jeff McNeely (World Conservation Union - IUCN)
11.00	The European Network for Biodiversity Information: plans for the future Wouter Los (Universiteit van Amsterdam and ENBI coordinator)
11.30	The Catalogue of Life - Dynamic Checklist Frank Bisby: Univ. of Reading & Species 2000 europa Co-ordinator
12.00 - 14.00	Taxonomic Databases in Species 2000 Biodiversity Informatics systems in ENBI (view posters) (Extensive poster display and a sandwich lunch)
	Short presentations: three parallel sessions (3 times 3 blocks. See below)
14.00 - 15.55	Products and services for the biodiversity community Isabel Calabuig Patricia Mergen Peter Schalk Ursula Monnerjahn Rainer Froese	Bio-informatics and interoperability of biodiversity databases Alex Gray Neil Caithness Richard White Marc Brugman Andrew Jones Aaron Beller	Biodiversity data and databases / Intellectual Property Right issues Walter Berendsohn Malcolm Scoble Thierry Bourgion Yde de Jong Simon Owens Frank Bisby
15.55	Tea
16.20	Views from a user, the example of pharmaceutical industry Young Hae Choi: Instituut Biologie Leiden & PRISNA
16.40	Closing remarks (Wouter Los and Frank Bisby)
17.00	Close of meeting

Parallel sessions:

Products and services for the biodiversity community

* Introduction: Making non-European biodiversity data in European repositories globally available	Isabel Calabuig
*Common structure of the web portal	Patricia Mergen
*Afrotropical Ceratitidine Fruit Flies	Patricia Mergen (on behalf of Marc de Meyer)
*A prototype image server to integrate the Martius Herbarium and the digital Flora Brasiliensis	Piet Stoffelen
*Macaranga and Mallotus species of Borneo: indicators of ecological disturbance	Piet Stoffelen (on behalf of Peter van Welzen)
*Providing access to Albertine Rift biodiversity data	Eric Verheyen
*Information services on European biodiversity data	Peter Schalk
*The first prototype of a European Dictionary of Domesticated and utilised Animals	Ursula Monnerjahn
*Multilingual access to biodiversity sites	Rainer Froese

Biodiversity informatics and interoperability of biodiversity databases

*Introduction: Data integration, interoperability and analysis	Marc Brugman
*The BUFFIE Architecture	R. Sundar
*Local GIS Biodiversity portals	Aaron Beller
*Interoperability of biodiversity databases: the SPICE project	Andrew Jones
*Litchi: Interlinking species information systems	Richard White
*BDWorld: A problem-solving environment for global biodiversity: prototype & demonstrator (BEP I Pilot)	Neil Caithness
*Computer science aspects in BDWorld	Alex Gray

Biodiversity data and databases/Intellectual property rights issues

*Initiatives for a European Biological Collection Information Service as a contribution to the GBIF network	Walter Berendsohn
*Cooperation of pan-European databases on biological collections and specimens	Malcolm Scoble
*Global Hub and Euro Hub	Thierry Bourgoin and Yde de Jong
*Intellectual Property Rights issues	Simon Owens
*Online demonstrations	Frank Bisby