Progress and plans
Mission
Vision: Free and open sharing of primary biodiversity data enriches knowledge and value of Portuguese and World biodiversity.
Mission: Promote the integration of Portuguese data publishers and resources of biodiversity information on the GBIF network, and the availability of biodiversity data for the scientific research and societal needs.
Funding
The funding sources of the Node are, in a shared costs model, the host institution (Instituto Superior de Agronomia, ISA) and the national agency for science and research in Portugal (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, FCT).
The basic financial contribution of Portugal to GBIF is supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).
History
In January 2013, the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) appointed IICT to be the host institution of the Portuguese Node of GBIF, which took place between 2013 and 2015. This was a decision based on the recommendation made by the FCT Scientific Council of Biological Sciences and Environment, recognising the strong capacity and infrastructure of IICT in the area of Biodiversity Informatics. In September 2015, due to the IICT extinction by merger with the University of Lisbon, the new hosting institution appointed was the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), the School of Agriculture of that university.
Over the last decade IICT has strongly invested in the digitization and free sharing of scientific collections on the Internet. This is the result of a strategy implemented to comply with the compromise assumed by Portugal in the 2003 Rio Summit of Science and Technology ministers of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) to make available, in digital form, the scientific patrimony namely of African CPLP countries.
On the other hand, ISA was the first Portuguese institution to publish a dataset through GBIF, and formerly collaborated with the Portuguese node in the co-organisation of training workshops.
Structure
The host institution of the GBIF Portuguese Node is the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA) of the University of Lisbon. The implementation and practice of the Node adheres to the following principles: independence, neutrality and trust; quality of information; quality and adaptability of service; collaboration and cooperation.
The Node annually reports to the Scientific Council for Natural and Environmental Sciences of the national funding agency for science, technology and innovation (FCT). ISA is a member of the Portuguese e-Infrastructure for Information and Research on Biodiversity (PORBIOTA). This consortium includes the national agency for the conservation of nature (ICNF) as a member.