This project aims to enhance data publication and bioinformatics in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The primary objective is to digitize and publish 300,000 records from the National Herbarium of Uzbekistan (TASH), as part of an ambitious digitization program.
The project team will provide capacity-building workshops on digitization techniques, data publication, and data cleaning while co-creating Russian language resources. An integral part of this project is setting up an Uzbek IPT for local data publication, aimed at strengthening the Uzbek GBIF node infrastructure.
Driving knowledge-sharing between Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, this project is expected to significantly boost the number of published biodiversity records from Central Asia, showcasing the importance of open science and paving the way for future data publication endeavors.
During this project, Tajik project partners will translate all materials relevant for data publication to Tajik for local specialists and to Russian for others Central Asia countries.
Project progress
As an integral part of this project, the Uzbekistan IPT was established on 29 September 2023, to publish local information aimed at strengthening the infrastructure of GBIF nodes in Uzbekistan and at midterm reporting the project team had, as part of the huge digitization program, digitized and published on GBIF 7,190 records from the National Herbarium of Uzbekistan (TASH).
On 22–24 April 2024, the project held its capacity-building workshop on digitization techniques, data publishing and data cleaning. Participation was engaging and of particular significance was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Uzbekistan to become a voting member of GBIF. Ties between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were also strengthened and the networking opportunities in the workshop allowed the project team to formulate plans to lead the GBIF data publication movement throughout central Asia, incorporating neighbouring countries in the future.
