Access to high-quality, comprehensive, primary biodiversity information has long been limited in many parts of the world, and particularly in Africa, where colonial powers extracted and presently hold most of the existing biodiversity information. Although data-sharing initiatives such as VertNet, GBIF, and others have made major strides in making readily available what information exists presently in digital formats, vast quantities of highly-relevant biodiversity information is far less accessible to potential users. In addition to a paucity of quality data, African scientists have had little access to specialized biodiversity informatics training. There remains a severe lack of formal and long-term training infrastructure in biodiversity informatics for Africans.

The Biodiversity Informatics Training Curriculum (BITC) aims to create and house comprehensive training resources that are accessible to everyone. This second phase of funding will build upon the original JRS funded project to broaden the training resources to respond to needs of African scientists and data users working in conservation and development.  Through continued funding, BITC will establish long-term training infrastructure by the end of this project that is available to African scientists. The project will involve in-person training courses that are informed by local decision-makers and biodiversity informatics experts and adding to online resource. Over the course of the coming three-year project, the content of the curriculum become more relevant to African scientists and the ownership and management of BITC will be transferred to African institutions.

1. Implement new training dimensions in an open symposium forum and an intensive, goal-and-product-focused approach that was tested in the later courses of BITC1.
2. Expand access to learning resources via subtitling and translation into 7 languages.
3. Build collaborative BITC communities via social media platforms.
4. Build African capacity in biodiversity informatics via involvement of African scientists and Advisory Board to move BITC to an African institution.

With COVID-19 restricting travel and meeting with our grantees, JRS invited our projects to submit a short update for the JRS Board of Trustees. Though intended for an internal JRS audience, we loved these videos and share them here with permission. Enjoy!

• One symposium style course workshop per year reaching approximately 45 people in Rwanda, Malawi, and Botswana, yielding published papers or datasets.
• Biodiversity informatics training content that is responsive to prior trainee feedback, African advisory board priorities, and local decision-maker input.
• Increased access and exposure to training materials to approximately 300 people.
• African advisory board to plan for sustaining the program of the BITC.

This project will ensure that the successes of the first iteration of BITC are strengthened and supported. By adapting to lessons learned from the original BITC, BITC2 will address new training needs and add more African relevance and ownership of the educational resource. The open-access trainings will be made available to a global user community, and through expanding networks, greater knowledge exchange and partnership building will be possible. Engaging with an African advisory board will strengthen the direction of the curriculum development and lead to the eventual transfer of BITC leadership in Africa to African institutions.

This project is built on the experiences gained during the completion of the first Biodiversity Informatics Training Curriculum from 2013 – 2015, also supported by JRS. With feedback from the original BITC participants, the areas for improvement were identified, and incorporated into the design of BITC2. In particular, the feedback included lessons on network development, building content that is accessible and relevant to African biodiversity scientists, and striking a balance between in-person workshops and online content.

Prior to her appointment at Oxford, Dr. Erin Saupe was awarded both a fellowship through the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies at Yale University, and a National Science Foundation (NSF) Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellowship. She completed her PhD at the University of Kansas in 2014, receiving the Erasmus S. Haworth Distinguished Graduate Award for her dissertation work. She focuses her research on interactions between life and environments over geological time scales, with particular interest in applying deep-time information to current problems of species conservation.

The first phase of the BITC in Africa was a great success and served to underpin the activities of many of the GBIF Africa nodes. The course seeded the continent with trainees who have become direct grant recipients from JRS, GBIF, and others.  Much was learned about designing courses with longer-term contact with trainees, with stronger links to local demand for date, and that support local networks. We’re excited that the lessons have been incorporated into the BITC Phase Two design, the incorporation of an African advisory Board, improved user interface and video quality, translations, and interactions with local policy makers.