Co-Chairs

Nico Cellinese (University of Florida) and Greg Riccardi (Florida State University)

In 2010 The National Science Foundation established the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections (ADBC) program aiming at supporting biological collections digitization to improve access to scientific data and to create a national resource that documents the planet biodiversity.

            Four ADBC awards were made in July 2011. iDigBio was established at the Florida Museum of Natural History, the University of Florida, and the Florida State University to serve as a national resource to support digitization efforts and integrate data from biological research collections around the United States.  The three Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs) involve 92 Institutions in 45 US States, and cover multiple collections domains from insects and pathogens to vascular and non-vascular plants. These funded TCNs represent very different use cases with their unique scenarios, bottlenecks, challenges and initial set of potential solutions. 

This symposium offers an initial opportunity to bring together all ADBC stakeholders to share and compare the challenges ahead, identify common, unresolved issues, and discuss potential novel solutions.  Each project will be described, including the planned strategies to be implemented, at least initially. Speakers will include one representative from each funded TCN and an iDigBio representative to present the roles and goals of the national resource. Ample discussion time will be provided.

Talk 1: InvertNet–An Integrative Platform for Research on Environmental Change, Species Discovery and Identification

Talk 2: Plants, Herbivores and Parasitoids: A Model System for the Study of Tri-Trophic Associations

Talk 3: North American Lichens and Bryophytes: Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change

Talk 4: Greg Riccardi – iDigBio: roles and goals

Discussion