Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), funded by the Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan is seeking concept notes for the fourth phase of its Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA) programme that aims to address key challenges that GBIF nodes in Asia have identified in connection with the mobilization and use of biodiversity data in the region. This call for proposals aims to address key challenges that GBIF nodes in Asia have identified in connection with the mobilization and use of biodiversity data in the region.

The fourth call under the Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA) programme invites proposals that:

• Enhance knowledge of Asian biodiversity through access to data from biological collections and monitoring programmes in the region
• Engage research and policy communities in the use and application of data mobilized through GBIF

Three types of grants are included in the call:

1. BIFA collections data mobilization grants will target Asia’s natural history collections, to fill taxonomic and geographic gaps in freely-accessible data relating to Asian biodiversity.
2. BIFA ecological monitoring data mobilization grants will target Asian biodiversity monitoring programmes and networks.
3. BIFA data use support grants will target Asian institutions and organizations, aiming to engage research and/or policy communities in the use and application of data mobilized through GBIF

The total potential funding assigned to this call is approximately €71,000, and applicants may request a maximum of €15,000 through BIFA for each project.

Interested candidates can submit their applications here

GBIF—the Global Biodiversity Information Facility—is an international network and research infrastructure funded by the world’s governments and aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth. Coordinated through its Secretariat in Copenhagen, the GBIF network of participating countries and organizations, working through participant nodes, provides data-holding institutions around the world with common standards and open-source tools that enable them to share information about where and when species have been recorded. This knowledge derives from many sources, including everything from museum specimens collected in the 18th and 19th century to geotagged smartphone photos shared by amateur naturalists in recent days and weeks.