MOBILISE fourth blended Training School (TS)

“Next step in the digitization process of Natural History collections:

Publishing of biological, geological, palaeontological & mineralogical data”

ONLINE PART (via zoom)

20 January 2023 13.00 -17.00 PM CET

FACE TO FACE PART

06-07 February 2023 in Brussels, BELGIUM

MOBILISE COST Action 17106: “Mobilising Data, Policies and Experts in Scientific Collections”, in cooperation with GBIF https://www.gbif.org,

CETAF- DEST https://cetaf.org/explore/dest-distributed-school-of-european-taxonomy/, and DISSCo https://dissco.eu, organises its fourth Training School (TS) on the publishing of biological, geological, palaeontological & mineralogical data.

This hands-on and interactive training initiative will give the opportunity to students & professionals of Natural History Institutions to get informed and exercised on the publishing of their collections’ data sets.

The Training School will be a blended one: it’s online part, addressing all theoretical issues, will be the 20th of January 2023 (via zoom) while it’s face to face part, which is going to be an interactive hands-on experience, will be held in Brussels (the exact location to be fixed), Belgium, the 6th until the 7th (noon) of February 2023.

Deadline for applications is the 15th of December 2022. Applicants need to register in the link https://form.jotform.com/223062673434352

and upload, in the same link, a short CV of one page and an extract of the dataset they would like to publish online accompanied with a short description of it (more details below in application’s requirements). Selected trainees will be duly informed until the 19th of December 2022. After the end of the Training School they will all receive a COST Trainee Grant for their accommodation, meals and travel costs (more details below). 

COST

COST is an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology established to initiate networking and coordination of nationally funded research activities on a European level. It was established in 1971 by 19 member countries and currently includes 35 member countries across Europe, and Israel as a cooperating state. It facilitates bringing scientists together under light strategic guidance based on networks, called COST Actions, centred on research projects in fields that are of interest both to COST countries and cooperating countries.

OVERVIEW AND TIME SCHEDULE

The Training School (TS) “Next step in the digitization process of Natural History collections: Publishing of biological, geological, palaeontological & mineralogical data”

will address the following theoretical topics during its online session:

  • The Biodiversity Data Standards
  • The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) profile
  • The IPT (INTEGRATED PUBLISHING TOOLKIT)
  • The types of Data Sets convenient for publication in GBIF
  • The GeoCASe platform
  • The ABCDEFG STANDARTS which give access to Biological Collection Databases extended for Geosciences
  • The types of Data Sets convenient for publication in GeoCase

The face to face part of the TS will be a hands-on experience, since, according to its schedule, all of its time is dedicated to exercises on the above theoretical topics while group work will ensure and motivate interaction between trainees and trainers and foster lively discussions. Moreover, trainees will have the possibility to bring sample(s) of their institutional biodiversity and geodiversity digital database and exercise on them. The analytical program can be downloaded here

WHO CAN APPLY – APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

The Training School “Next step in the digitization process of Natural History collections: Publishing of biological, geological, palaeontological & mineralogical data” is addressed to everyone who is engaged in biological and geological collections and their data, such as Curators and Collections’ managers, Directors/Senior managers, Collections’ Digitization managers/officers, Scientists on bio- or geo informatics, Early Career Investigators (individuals who are within a time span of up to 8 years from the date they obtained their PhD/doctorate in full-time equivalent), Students (Post graduates, MSc, PhD), Technicians of collections. They must be engaged in an official research programme as a PhD Student or postdoctoral fellow or can be employed by, or affiliated to, an institution, organisation or legal entity which has within its remit a clear association with performing research (more details in https://www.cost.eu/uploads/2021/04/Vademecum-28-April-2021.pdf)

Trainees eligible for reimbursement:

  1. Trainees from COST Full Members / COST Cooperating Member.
  2. Action MC Observer from NNC.
  3. Trainees from Approved European RTD Organisations.

Trainees not eligible to be reimbursed:

  1. Trainees from COST Partner Members.
  2. Action MC Observers from IPC.
  3. Trainees from Approved IO, EU Commission, Bodies, Offices and Agencies.
  4. Other Trainees not specifically mentioned as being eligible.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

Trainees are required to send, together with their CV, an extract of the dataset they would like to publish online, accompanied with a short description of it. The preferred format for these extracts is *.csv format and Unicode encoding (UTF-8).

The organisers team will assess these datasets prior to the applicants’ acceptance to the Training School.

The biodiversity dataset classes we will handle during the course are occurrence core datasets and sample-based datasets. 

Occurrence Core datasets

The dataset must have sufficiently consistent detail to contribute information about the location of individual organisms in time and space—that is, they offer evidence of the occurrence of a species (or other taxon) at a particular place on a specified date. 

Sampling-event Data

Datasets sometimes provide greater detail, not only offering evidence that a species occurred at a given location and date, but also making it possible to assess community composition for broader taxonomic groups or even the abundance of species at multiple times and places.

 

More information on these type of datasets can be found here: https://www.gbif.org/dataset-classes more information on dataset preparation here: https://ipt.gbif.org/manual/en/ipt/2.4/dwca-guide#annex-preparing-your-data

 

APPLICATION DEADLINE AND GRANTS

Application deadline for the Training School is the 15th of December 2022. Applicants need to register in the link https://form.jotform.com/223062673434352

and upload, in the same link, a short CV of one page and an extract of the dataset they would like to publish online accompanied with a short description of it (more details in application’s requirements) The Training School is open to a limited number of trainees. No fees apply to the Training School.

Successful applicants will be notified until the 19th of December 2022.

 

Each successful applicant, after the 19th of December 2022, must register for an e-COST profile at https://e-services.cost.eu – and must add his/her bank details to his/her e-COST profile in order to receive, afterwards, his/her e-COST invitation to attend the Training School.

After the end of the Training School trainees will receive, in their bank accounts, a fixed COST Grant (Trainee Grant) covering travel, accommodation and meal expenses of the grantee.

COST policies on gender balance, involvement of Early Career Investigators, and geographical inclusiveness will be followed.


 

CERTIFICATE

At the end of the TS, trainees will obtain the MOBILISE COST Action Certificate with ECVET credits (European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training).

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

In order to follow the TS, trainees need a CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) B1 level of English, as the formal language of the TS is English.

TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS
Trainees are required to bring their own laptops. They are also recommended to bring sample(s) of their institutional biodiversity and geodiversity digital database in order to be exercised on them.

Evaluation Questionnaire BRUSSELS Training School FEB 23
MOBILISE fourth blended Training School (TS)