Call for marine biodiversity (monitoring) data

Description

To effectively replicate the ocean’s ecology, the Digital Twin of the Ocean requires sustained flows of data on biodiversity and associated pressures. While biodiversity data are being collected by myriad actors, using a wide variety of methods (including novel cost-effective monitoring technologies), not all these data become publicly available in a standardized format. The DTO-BioFlow project will activate these "sleeping" marine biodiversity data and enable the sustainable integration of data flows from various sources to EMODnet and into the EDITO infrastructure serving the EU DTO.     This call is aimed at marine biodiversity data holders who can contribute to the DTO-BioFlow project by establishing ingestion pipelines to the EU DTO and thereby increasing the flow of relevant biodiversity data. The selected beneficiaries commit to carry out the following activities: Participate in the workshop which will provide training on how to reformat and quality control data conform international standards and make these available to EMODnet Biology. Contribute to the flow of marine biodiversity data into the DTO, through developing data flow pipelines to EMODnet Biology. Ensure the data is formatted, standardized, and quality-controlled conforming to the relevant international standards (as demonstrated in the workshop). Ensure the data complies to Open Access, preferably under a Creative Commons CC-BY license. Ensure that metadata and data will become available through EMODnet Biology. Provide short intermediary reports on their progress every four months, and a final report on the results at the end of the 12-month project. Applicants need to have the rights and permissions to work with the data, and bring these into the public domain under an open license. For more detailed information, see the DTO-BioFlow website.

Beneficiary & submission

Application process Applicants should submit their application through the Open Call webform on the DTO-BioFlow website. If you do not already have an account on the DTO-Bioflow website, you will need to create one first to access the Open Call webform. You can save a draft of your Open Call application and return to it at a later date if necessary. The deadline for submitting proposals is January 17th 2024, 17:00 CET. Eligibility criteria and other details can be found on the DTO-BioFlow website. Assessment process The assessment panel will rate all eligible proposals, taking into account the following criteria: Relevance: The proposal conforms to the requirements, goals and scope of the DTO-BioFlow project. Impact: What will be the estimated impact? Size/number, frequency, continuance, and range (temporal/geographic/taxonomic) of proposed dataset(s) will be considered, in combination with how much the proposed data contribute to filling gaps in the current biodiversity data landscape (gaps could be taxonomical, geographical, methodological, etc.). Sustained data flow & automation: the data flows set up within the project are designed to continue beyond the duration of the project, are as much as possible automated and the applicants are willing to commit to a long-term data flow, beyond the duration of their grant and the DTO-BioFlow project duration. Uniqueness: the proposal does not overlap with existing data pipelines and networks. Excellence/proposal quality: the proposed actions are realistic, feasible, well-defined and in balance with the requested financial support. An initial ranking will be constructed based on this evaluation. Additional factors might impact the final list of third parties receiving funding, such as the amount of requested budget, similarity to a higher ranked proposal, ethical concerns and potential conflicts of interest.

Further information

Full details regarding the DTO-BioFlow Call for marine biodiversity (monitoring) data can be found on the DTO-BioFlow website. Contact opencalls@dto-bioflow.eu for any questions about this call.