In this project, the well-established Belgian node aims to transfer the knowledge and experience to the newly established Croatian node through a series of hands-on workshops discussing all relevant available information from the GBIF secretariat, including:
- strategy (Strategic Framework, Implementation Plan and Work Programmes),
- governance (the GBIF structure, Governing board, Nodes and network),
- technical topics (standards, data cleaning, data publishing, data papers, Github repository),
- other opportunities for nodes (CESP, ECA nodes, Ambassador program, mentor program, GBIF community forum)
The aim of the workshops will be to explore how those elements can be best implemented in the work of Croatian GBIF node.
Through cofunding the project team will also invite scientists from other Balkan countries active in another GBIF-related project to take part in the workshops.
Project progress
At midterm reporting the project had successfully held a data mobilization event “CROMENT Workshop on biodiversity data and the GBIF network 2024”, which consisted of three different data mobilization workshops for the scientific community.
Held consecutively 19–23 February 2024 and attended by 25 participants from 16 different institutions, the week’s programme included hands-on and technical workshops to teach about the data mobilization and publication process, where best practice examples on data cleaning and data management were given, including detailed information on the use of DarwinCore Standard and the use of IPT. In addition, a GBIF community workshop was held, where information on the GBIF network and policy, Living Atlases and open data principle was provided, and for which a data mobilization strategy exercise was carried out. As a result of the workshop the project has published to GBIF one dataset containing 3,000 records of saproxylic beetles.
In addition to the above, the project is in progress with the drafting of a National Data Mobilization Strategy, and after establishing contact with the governmental office in charge of open data policy and Croatian Open Data Portal, activities for mobilization of biodiversity data and strengthening of the Croatian GBIF node (CroBIF) were included in the draft of the national Action Plan for Implementation of the Open Data Policy 2024-2025. Furthermore, as part of the open data principle in the region, the Croatian GBIF node (CroBIF) accepted to host the GBIF Europe and Central Asia Nodes meeting, May 2024.
