GBIF Spain at the 25th meeting of the GBIF Governing Board (GB25)

The 25th meeting of the GBIF Governing Board (GB25) took place on 16-17 October 2018, and it was hosted by the National Biodiversity Data Centre in Kilkenny (Ireland).

The Spanish Delegation attending the meeting was integrated by Benjamín Sánchez Gimeno (Head of Delegation of GBIF.ES, General Vice-director of Internationalization of Science and Innovation, from the Ministry for Science, Innovation, and Universities), Cristina Villaverde (GBIF.ES Technical Coordinator, Royal Botanical Garden – CSIC), and Arturo Ariño (additional delegate, from the University of Navarra). The meeting gathered representation from 25 Voting Participants, 3 Associate Country Participants, 11 Other Associate Participants, and two observer countries. A total of 96 persons attended the meeting.

To coincide with the formal Governing Board meeting, there were a number of associated events around the theme of how biodiversity data are being used at a global, regional and national scale to inform policy and delivery on the ground action for biodiversity. On October 18 the National Biodiversity Data Centre in Kilkenny also hosted the public simposyum about Biodiversity loss in a changing world: local data, global action which provided a unique opportunity to hear about some of GBIF’s work and its global network, and gain an insight into how some Irish initiatives use data to assist conservation action at the regional and local levels.

The 2019 GBIF budget and work plan were publicly presented among other important documents as well as the winners of the Ebbe Nielsen Challenge and the Young Researchers Award.

You can find more information about GB25 meeting and its associated events at https://gb25.gbif.org/.