First mentoring project meeting in Madrid between GBIF Zimbabwe and GBIF Spain

The first meeting in the framework of the CESP project “Strengthening Zimbabwe’s GBIF node through collaboration with GBIF Spain“, funded by GBIF, took place in the Royal Botanic Garden of Madrid from September 24-27, 2019.

The two staff members from GBIF.ZW who attended the meeting were Luke Jimu – GBIF.ZW Node Manager – and Innocent Wadzanayi Nyakudya who is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Science at Bindura University of Science Education and the additional Delegate of the recently created African Node – who visited the headquarters of the GBIF Spain Coordination Unit.

Some of the topics addressed by both teams during the meeting included presentations on the services provided by both Nodes, a presentation and discussion on the biodiversity data publishing process, practicing how to adapt biodiversity data to the Darwin Core standard, teaching some useful tools for data cleaning and quality and uploading a Zimbabwean dataset to their IPT (Integrated Publishing Toolkit). There was also time to discuss citizen science, testing different apps during a field trip to Aranjuez, the Living Atlases Community of Practice, the GBIF.ZW Strategic Plan and the planning of future project actions. Visits to the Germplasm Bank and the Herbarium of the Royal Botanical Garden were also organized for the representatives of both countries.

This meeting has been an excellent opportunity to share experiences and knowledge which will allow a more efficient establishment of the GBIF.ZW Node. It has also been useful to create strong links between the staff of both Nodes, always willing to learn and share in a very friendly atmosphere.

The agenda and work materials (presentations and use cases) can be found on the project website.