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GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge

Today the GBIF Secretariat launched the inaugural GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge, hoping to inspire innovative applications of open-access biodiversity data by scientists, informaticians, data modelers, cartographers and other experts competing for a €20,000 first prize.

As most of you will know, for the past 12 years, GBIF has awarded the Ebbe Nielsen Prize to recognize outstanding contributions to biodiversity informatics while honouring the legacy of Ebbe Nielsen, one of the principal founders of GBIF, who tragically died just before it came into being.

The Science Committee, working with the Secretariat, has revamped the award for 2015 as the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge. This open incentive competition seeks to encourage innovative uses of the more than half a billion species occurrence records mobilized through GBIF’s international network. We expect that these creative applications of GBIF-mediated data will come in a wide variety of forms and formats—new analytical research, richer policy-relevant visualizations, web and mobile applications, improvements to processes around data digitization, quality and access, or perhaps something else entirely. A jury composed of experts from the biodiversity informatics community will judge the Round One entries on their innovation, functionality and applicability, before selecting three to six finalists to compete for a €20,000 First Prize later in 2015. 

The Challenge site is now live. We encourage anyone interested in the Challenge to create a profile and register on ChallengePost so that they receive timely alerts, updates, and other communications about the competition. It’s worth noting, too, that the ChallengePost platform provides access to a community for finding and communicating with developers, software creators and other creative partners about collaborating on submissions, which are due on Tuesday, 2 March 2015.

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