IndexMed is a consortium dedicated to the « Management of biodiversity and natural spaces » managed by the IMBE (Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and marine and terrestrial Ecology), gathering multidisciplinary laboratories (such as ecology, astronomy, physics, molecular biology, environmental economics, computer science) and international bodies (GBIF, OBIS [Ocean Biogeographic Information System]). Its main goal is to enhance the discoverability of existing databases and to promote their effective use by the ecological research community. This consortium is made to respond to calls for projects that use databases to address ecological issues in the Mediterranean basin, promoting multidisciplinary research and collaboration with several institutes of the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) and other research entities (such as IRD [Institute of Research for the Development], MNHN [National Museum of natural History]). The projects to be developed by IndexMed members must be based on various national and international initiatives and promote international collaborations. The short-term goal of IndexMed is to establish a platform of data indexing of Mediterranean biodiversity and of associated environmental parameters that are of interest to research. This index will use the tools and methods recommended at both national (SINP [National Information System about Biodiversity], MNHN, RBDD [Network of Research Databases]) and international levels (such as OBIS, GBIF).

The project will develop an “object resolution service” (i.e. a web service that finds links and dependencies among indexed objects, based on unique identification of objects). This object resolution service should permit an inventory of biodiversity descriptors, will estimate the capacity of data to describe socio-ecological systems at temporal and geographic scales and must permit linked economic and social approaches. IndexMed should develop new transdisciplinary methods of data analysis, focusing on open data, open source and free methods and development tools with an initial level of interoperability. The project will test the creation of "data cubes" by connecting for example, sociological, economic and ecological aspects of Mediterranean biodiversity. It will rely on the latest developments in information technology and mathematics (algorithm graphs, data mining) to propose solutions to transdisciplinary issues that directly concern biodiversity.

More information may be found at http://www.indexmed.eu