The Catalogue of Life Peter Schalk Sp2000 (Naturalis, Netherlands) Thomas Orrell ITIS (NMNH, Smithsonian, USA) How it began in 1996 …. A man with a vision: “Lets bring together the knowledge of the global taxonomic community in a single shared authoritative system on species concepts that can be used by all”. The resulting product was called the Catalogue of Life. Frank A. Bisby 1945 - 2011 What did we plan to build? A Resource … • an electronic synonymic species checklist, • a tightly integrated taxonomic hierarchy, • intended for all 1.9 M extant known species. …. constructed through international collaboration • checklist and hierarchy constructed from sectors from many networked databases around the world • and integrated using an international review panel of experts • owned by all, available to all Big job partnership 2002 Open Governance Members Ownership Sp2k Board Secretariat CoL Team Organization TaxGr ISGr OpenUp! OpenBio 4D4Life i4Life BHL Europe Work Programs (externally funded) iMarine CoL Products (realized in partnership with ) Catalogue of Life ITIS Website, webservices, download services Hosting: Naturalis / University of Illinois Custom Information Services Uses and users Annual Checklist Biological collections Biodiversity Observations Distribution Ecological relations Medical information Catalogue of Life Legislation Regional Checklists usage Dynamic Checklist Taxonomic Multi-lingual Access databases Chemical Image libraries substances Literature Growing participation in the community, growing number of users, increasing responsibilities! Number of Databases 160 Total hits for all services: 140 approx. (2015) 120 1M per hour 100 25M per 24h 80 60 40 20 0 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Almost there …. Number of Species 2000000 1800000 1600000 1400000 1200000 1000000 800000 600000 400000 200000 0 COL Strategic Plan 2016-2020 Completing the CoL (quantity) 95% Addressing gap areas in the species index. Define precise number of species (bottom up) Extending the synonymic content towards completeness (federated approach with partners) Amplifying quality Addressing weak spots in CoL GSD coverage. Include indicator of completeness. Mechanism for inviting user feedback on quality / errors (together with partners) Improving infrastructure (through shared development) CoL Strategic Plan 2016-2021: Focal Areas GNA User Feedback Updating 4D4Life/i4Life CoL service e-infrastructure (security issues, performance)nomenclators Annotation Completing Vision: to build a the CoL Amplyfying completed CoL by Addressing Data Quality expanded through Improve CoL construction route (QAW approach for part automation of updates) Gap Areas Improved federated name services that takes a e-infrastructure unique place fully interoperable amongst other with other Improving user services (fuzzy search, x-mapping) complementary Global Services global services. Societal Services Strenthening (together with the CoL Network partners) (enabling providers) Integration Shared e-infra Strengthening the CoL network of providers and sw tools EEA Offering IUCN Cloud Db infra IKEA GBIF Data validation services T&F EoL Offering support GSD providers: hosting solutions (proto GSD) & migration services. Backups.BHL BOLD Providing feedback (statistics) on GSD and record level. Access to (literature) data. Funding! Increase (societal) services. Extend the number of service contracts and expert validation services Country proto-checklist reports (with GBIF; hackathon output) Address identifiers issue on name and taxon level (with partners) GBIF STRATEGIC PLAN 2017-2021 • Five draft priorities • Deliver Relevant Data – Support supranational research and policy needs – Enhance relevance to taxonomy and climate change research • Fill Data Gaps – Identify and prioritise spatial, temporal and taxonomic gaps – Engage countries and institutions with data to address gaps • Improve Data Quality – Enhance automated and human curation of data – Develop clear quality indicators • Organise Biodiversity Knowledge – Link data to other online biodiversity data sets • Classifications, genes, traits, literature, etc. – Improve stability and persistence of data • Empower Global Network – Provide tools and best practice guidance – Promote and support engagement of countries and institutions everywhere within GBIF http://www.gbif.org/newsroom/consultations#strategicplan The Biodiversity Summit Statement Aligning strategic development goals The global Biodiversity programs COL-GBIF-EOL-BHL-BOLD, each closely allied with global Natural History Museums, met to discuss synergy and explore potential for intensifying collaboration concerning e-infrastructure, software tools, services. The organizations - each with independent objectives, structures, and assets - have a long standing history of cooperation, sharing information and developments, and together meet essential needs in the biodiversity community and society. It was agreed to coordinate future activities, develop coherent / integrated services, and work on strategies for funding aiming for a durable relationship. The Biodiversity Summit First step: working towards a single shared taxonomic index • Achieving a shared taxonomic backbone or index that serves BOLD, COL, GBIF, EOL, BHL, LifeWatch and provide a freely accessible resource to other users • Unify developing forces and funding resources to realize a jointly owned and maintained taxonomic index to organize biodiversity data • Use GBIF – as intentionally funded and controlled organisation – as a home base for the index Towards a centrally shared and owned name index BHL BOLD EOL LifeWatch C users GBIF O ……. L GNA …… Collection Data Observation Data Collaborative Information Services of the Taxonomic Community To think about …. The Annual Budget of ESA is 3676 million Euro (2012) The Annual Budget of CERN is 1076 million Euro (2012) The Annual Budget of GBIF is currently only 3.0 million Euro (2014) The Annual Budget of CoL is 0.29 million Euro (2015) We must collaborate and sell our value better! …. a matter of perspective! Catalogue of Life Mini Symposium, Washington, June 2014 The whole is greater than the sum of the parts … Natural the History Museums Life partnership Partnership for life: vision, synergy, trust, relevance Thank you! www.catalogueoflife.org Peter H Schalk Executive Secretary Species 2000 c/o Naturalis, Darwinweg 4, 2333 CL Leiden, Netherlands Email: [email protected] [email protected] Thanks are due … The Catalogue of Life aggregates the knowledge produced by taxonomic community. Without the data provided by the GSDs there is no CoL. No index of all living species. No instrument to connect databases with a taxonomic component. Long term GSD providers who helped building the CoL deserve a token of appreciation! Thierry Bourgoin, FLOW Rafaël Govaerts, World Checklist of Selected Plant Families Michael Malicky, Zobodat Ard Nijhof, TicksBase John Noyes, Universal Chalcidoidea Database Jan van Tol, Global Species Database of Odonata Peter Uetz, The Reptile Database .