University of Kassel involved in "Disentis Roadmap" for the release of biodiversity data

The Disentis Roadmap is the result of a symposium that took place in August 2024 at the Disentis Monastery in the Swiss Alps. It brought together leading experts from ten countries to discuss access to biodiversity data. While progress in the release of open biodiversity data was recognized, the participants noted that scientific publications often contain data that is difficult to access.

A key problem is the lack of links between existing databases, which makes access to relevant information considerably more difficult. The Disentis Roadmap is therefore advocating a new digital mechanism: the "Libroscope". This is intended to "liberate" and link data from scientific publications in order to promote the understanding of biodiversity. The approach is compared to revolutionary scientific instruments such as the microscope or telescope, which once opened up new perspectives.

Vision: A globally networked data ecosystem by 2035

The Disentis Roadmap aims to make all relevant research data on biodiversity accessible in an open and interoperable framework by 2035. To this end, the data is to be prepared in a machine-readable format and analyzed using technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

Close cooperation with international funding organizations and scientific publishers is also being sought. The latter should commit to following the FAIR principles by 2035: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.

Support from science, publishing and research institutions

In addition to the University of Kassel, 26 institutions and 46 individuals worldwide are among the first signatories of the roadmap. These include major natural history collections, scientific institutions, research infrastructures as well as publishers and specialist societies from various fields. The full list of signatories can be found here.

"By repositioning scientific publications as an essential part of the research cycle, the Disentis Roadmap encourages publishers and the scientific community to move beyond open access to FAIR access," said Laurence Bénichou, founder and liaison officer of the European Journal of Taxonomy. "Proactively ensuring data quality and dissemination is the main mission of the European Journal of Taxonomy. In this way, the EJT improves the immediate findability and usability of the taxonomic information it publishes and makes it more valuable to the entire scientific community. Adhering to the Disentis vision is a crucial step towards liberating and enriching knowledge about biodiversity."

Meise Botanic Garden CEO Steven Dessein, who attended the Disentis Symposium, commented: "Meise Botanic Garden fully supports the Disentis Roadmap, which builds on the foundation laid by the Bouchout Declaration. Open biodiversity data is essential to tackling today's pressing environmental challenges, from biodiversity loss to climate change. By ensuring that research publications are more accessible and connected, this roadmap is a crucial step towards making biodiversity knowledge usable for science, policy and conservation."

Christophe Déssimoz, Executive Director of the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, another signatory of the Disentis Roadmap, adds: "We have long been committed to open, structured and interoperable data to advance the life sciences. The Disentis Roadmap applies the same principles to biodiversity knowledge and ensures that important data is not only available, but can actually be used for research, policy and conservation."

The Director of the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Thomas Borsch, points out that taxonomic research depends more than any other branch of science on the availability of machine-usable biodiversity data from the literature. "The 'Libroscope' postulated in the Disentis Roadmap will enable a new generation of research workflows through its interoperable approach," says Professor Borsch. "This will be very helpful to address urgent problems in biodiversity research and in particular to improve the use of quality information on organisms in national and global assessments.

For further information please contact:

Donat Agosti agosti@plazi.org
Tim Hirsch tim@timhirsch-consulting.com

Social media:

@libroscope.bsky.social
@libroscope@ecoevo.social
www.linkedin.com/company/disentis-roadmap/