GBIF Work Programme 2026 Annual Update and Implementation Plan to the Strategic Framework 2023–2027

Knowledge gaps are reduced by consolidating data coverage across the thematic areas of relevance

GBIF’s relevance to research is enhanced, through increased recognition and uptake of GBIF mediated data among researchers across additional scientific disciplines

Consolidate scientific expertise across the GBIF network—including researchers from national participants, thematic community experts, the Science Committee and the GBIF Secretariat—to support development of strategic documents, communications and improvements to GBIF-mediated data and services

Expand GBIF’s relevance by engaging high-priority thematic communities of practice, including agrobiodiversity; support knowledge exchange, data flow and community engagement; and advance thematic reporting, data discoverability, and identification of data gaps and biases

Explore and map established and emerging data practices in global research; assess the usability and accessibility of GBIF infrastructure for researchers; and recommend improvements to tools and processes

Identify opportunities to integrate content from existing biodiversity data networks and repositories into GBIF while demonstrating the benefits of increased visibility through the GBIF platform

Ensure GBIF’s leadership by advocating for and participating in global initiatives that promote open science and open data

Reduce knowledge gaps by helping the network to set targets for consolidating data coverage across thematic, taxonomic, phylogenetic, spatial and temporal dimensions

Enable, expand and diversify the uptake and application of GBIF-mediated data

Demonstrate publishing of survey and monitoring data in Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) format from all continents and realms; explore streamlining data pipelines to enhance interoperability with new and existing publishers on the principles of cooperation with key networks (e.g. eLTER, NEON, EDI)

Support the implementation and further development of the proposed Darwin Core Data Package (DwC-DP) format by developing use cases across biodiversity domains that inform documentation and training resources and demonstrated examples of content publishing (see §3.3)

Inform infrastructure development that supports event-centric data in both DwC-A and DwC-DP formats, including data ingestion, discoverability, display and access

Update existing and develop new training materials and use cases to support the publishing and access of survey and monitoring data through GBIF

Showcase sampling-event data representation using both DwC-A and DwC-DP in GBIF; promote and support data mobilization through presentations and workshops at conferences and online platforms (e.g. Ecological Society of America, Society for Tropical Ecology, International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Annual Science Conference, aiming for a wide geographical spread) (see §3.3)

Run a data republication campaign to enhance existing occurrence datasets using the Humboldt Extension for Ecological Inventories

Knowledge gaps are reduced by consolidating data coverage across the thematic areas of relevance

GBIF’s relevance to research is enhanced, through increased recognition and uptake of GBIF-mediated data among researchers across additional scientific disciplines

Continue engagement targeting improvements in data coverage and quality from DNA-derived research and monitoring, including through expanded interoperability with partner infrastructures

Lead the development and implementation of infrastructure for sequence-based occurrence search and improvement of filtering and download options for DNA-derived data

Prototype functionalities required for ongoing taxonomic reinterpretation and standardization of DNA-derived data

Explore the feasibility of managing and/or hosting a global catalogue of DNA reference libraries to enhance the interpretability and reuse of sequence-based biodiversity evidence

Engage with major data providers and repositories of DNA sequences to scale up and improve data publishing pipelines and mobilize additional DNA-derived biodiversity data into GBIF

GBIF national participation is expanded across currently underrepresented regions, G20 economies and megadiverse countries

Current Associate Participants have agreed pathways towards achieving or returning to voting participation

GBIF is recognized as a key implementation partner for biodiversity-related projects supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF)

In consultation with delegations and nodes, draft updates to the GBIF five-year strategic framework and table of financial contributions

Explore the use of regional meetings or other consultation formats to scope, strengthen and operationalize engagement with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) regional and subregional support centres

Finalize guidance documents for Other Associate Participants (see §3.2)

Review roles and functions of Other Associate Participants to clarify partnerships and strengthen participation, in consultation with the Executive Committee

Develop and promote a clear value proposition for funders that aligns regional and thematic engagement with GBIF’s mission while identifying sources for directing funds into special purpose funds or targeted regional support mechanisms

Develop and publish a practical guidance note for integrating GBIF tools and services into national biodiversity finance strategies and related funding frameworks

Coordinate with UN agencies to ensure GBIF data services are reflected in at least one proposal under a national biodiversity strategy and action plan or other public funding mechanism

GBIF-mediated data is consistently and transparently applied and cited across multiple indicators used to monitor progress towards the goals and targets agreed through the CBD and integrated into national platforms and reporting processes

GBIF’s value in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is recognized and reinforced through strategic partnerships with relevant international organizations focused on climate change, food security, human health and well-being, and both terrestrial and marine biodiversity such as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

Renew memoranda of cooperation with at least three key international partners, such as Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the European Commission (EC)) to support shared policy objectives and increase visibility

Strengthen GBIF’s contributions to CBD national reporting and Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) indicators through targeted collaboration with national focal points and indicator agencies while sharing examples with nodes and delegations to improve links to national-level policy engagement

Consolidate and promote policy use cases from across the network on other multilateral agreements, such as the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), ensuring alignment with reporting frameworks and highlighting GBIF’s role in supporting implementation

Develop data cube use cases through the EU-funded Biodiversity Building Blocks for Policy project (B-Cubed) to refine cube specifications and promote further uptake

Promote the use of the Catalogue of Life (COL) taxonomic services supported by ChecklistBank in international fora and infrastructures

Lending agreements prepared by private agencies, financial institutions and public development banks include clear and unequivocal requirements for sharing biodiversity data

Private companies, trade associations and consultancies in all global regions recognize GBIF as the preferred platform to share primary biodiversity data gathered through impact assessments and monitoring

Increase targeted engagement with trade associations, certification schemes and environmental consultancies to introduce data sharing principles across their communities of practice

Continue collaboration with the Taskforce on Nature-based Financial Disclosures (TNFD), including engaging as a data provider within the proposed Nature-related Data Public Facility (NDPF)

Continue to engage corporate actors, financial institutions and public development banks to adopt best practices around sharing and acknowledging the use of data from the GBIF network

Extend collaboration with Esri and build on support of integrated access to GBIF-mediated data within ArcGIS Desktop software

The GBIF network, its audiences and its wider communities of practice are equipped with robust evidence that demonstrates its value and relevance to science, policy and society

Steward GBIF’s brand identity and support its application and extension across the network

Publish a paper detailing GBIF’s governance, community, infrastructure and content that can serve as a general reference for citing GBIF as an infrastructure and describe GBIF after 25 years

Create, design and implement framework for GBIF annual reports

Coordinate a consistent and structured approach toward community engagement and communication with nodes, thematic communities and other communities of practice

Evaluate the operations and effectiveness of GBIF awards programmes

Assess options to ensure the future sustainability and impact of the literature tracking programme

Coordinate celebrations marking GBIF’s 25th year of operations

GBIF nodes provide a strong and stable foundation for data mobilization and use through the network

The role of GBIF nodes as hubs for data mobilization and use is better understood and supported, especially at national level

Work with the Nodes Steering Group (NSG) to evaluate how to enhance the impact of the Node Awards programme in advance of its next implementation in 2027 (see §3.1)

Support the organization of six regional nodes meetings

Explore the role of regional support teams in onboarding new node managers and re-onboarding inactive nodes

Refine handbooks for regional representatives and regional support team members by providing complementary practical guidance

Continue support for the task group on Indigenous data governance and build on its recommendations for guidance materials to enable the GBIF community to implement the CARE Principles

Incorporate training modules from the Global Nodes training into the node development curriculum and consult with nodes to plan new modules

Assess and refine (as needed) the updated capacity self-assessment tool for national nodes with the NSG

Update guidance and course materials to clarify the roles of both national and organizational nodes (see also §2.1)

Recruit the nodes community to pilot tools and processes for publishing and using Darwin Core Data Packages (DwC-DP)

Organize a virtual course on joining GBIF as a formal Participant and establishing a Participant node

GBIF’s ongoing capacity support programmes are successfully concluded, and new support programmes are scoped

Additional training and guidance resources are available to the community in multiple languages covering both data mobilization and data use

Develop materials and support training activities around the DwC-DP and the Humboldt Extension for Ecological Inventories

Finalize the selection processes for the BID calls for proposals in and across target regions of Africa, the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)

Launch BID-funded projects with regional kick-off webinars

Work with regional support teams to deliver virtual and on-site training workshops to complement the work of the nodes and engage the broader community of practice

Coordinate the work and skills development of regional support teams to ensure they provide effective support of data mobilization and use

Organize three BID regional capacity enhancement workshops for funded project teams using updated and translated materials

Use a new reporting format developed for the Capacity Enhancement Support Programme (CESP) grantees to monitor progress towards the goals in the capacity development framework

Roll out capacity self-assessments and capacity indicators to monitor capacity and progress across all levels

GBIF-maintained software and informatics infrastructure provides high, ongoing levels of availability and performance that keep pace with growth in data publication and use

Complete the adoption of ChecklistBank as part of the core GBIF services for indexing checklist datasets, including updated public GBIF APIs and documentation, with particular consideration of regional requirements (continued from 2025)

Optimize the GBIF.org search infrastructure (Elasticsearch) through schema revision and by exploring configurations for dedicated indexing nodes

Expand the infrastructure to support download capabilities for the emerging Darwin Core Data Package format

Develop data processing pipelines to support ingestion of Darwin Core Data Packages

Improve automation of full data reprocessing to support monthly updates to the taxonomic backbone

Evaluate current processes and the impact of efforts to stabilize occurrence identifiers; revise approaches if necessary

The expanding GBIF community of users are fully supported by a responsive help desk team and improved technical documentation

The taxonomic and collections communities benefit from improvements in GBIF support to the Global Registry of Scientific Collections (GRSciColl) and the Catalogue of Life

Mature processes around the ticketing system for managing help desk requests, including training and onboarding regional and thematic contractors (carried over)

Develop documentation and guidance for contributing to and migrating to the Extended Release of the Catalogue of Life taxonomic backbone

Revise the data validator tool to support Darwin Core Data Packages and eDNA-specific datasets; incorporate user feedback and consider additional data checks in the future, e.g. those related to Indigenous data governance

Develop supporting guidance and tools for publishing using the Darwin Core Data Package

Support the GRSciColl editor community through training events, explore the feasibility of tracking citations for collections and institutions and provide regular training to node managers

Continue expanding technical documentation, focusing on publishing and services using Darwin Core Data Packages, GRSciColl and the Registry

Prepare and secure community input and review of updates to GBIF data user and data publisher agreements that comply with CBD COP Decision 16/2: Digital sequence information and genetic resources, with guidance on CARE Principles and relevant Indigenous data governance frameworks as appropriate

Improved user interface to GBIF.org

Improved capabilities for GBIF to handle ecological, collections, paleontological and phylogenetic data

Data reuse increased through more stable GBIF identifiers

Develop the Metabarcoding Data Toolkit (MDT) through the ongoing pilot Metabarcoding Data Programme

Implement sequence-based occurrence search and improve filtering and download options for DNA-derived data

Develop a prototype for continuous taxonomic interpretation of DNA-derived data using reference catalogues

Expand capabilities to visualize, search and download records from event-based survey and monitoring datasets

Implement support for processing Darwin Core Data Package (DwC-DP) datasets and improve visualisations that showcase their richness

Improve processing of occurrence records to annotate them using checklist content (e.g. isMarine, isKnownInvasiveSpecies)

Explore options for adding additional GIS layers (e.g. elevation, land use) to GBIF.org and hosted portal deployments

Add the ability to annotate species occurrence maps on GBIF to flag suspicious records

Move the experimental “related records” functionality (clustering) into production APIs and services

Explore options for marine and freshwater spatial filters and a vocabulary for water bodies, in support of the OBIS-GBIF 2024 Joint Action Plan for Marine Biodiversity Data

Evaluate current processes related to occurrenceID stability and transition to more stable automation

Continue implementing outcomes from the task group on Indigenous data governance, including adoption of Local Contexts labels at appropriate levels within the GBIF infrastructure

Explore alternative sources to GADM.org for filtering records against global administrative boundaries

The work to revise the data model used by GBIF is matured and applicable for use

All controlled terms used in GBIF processing are managed in the vocabulary server

Complete the DwC-DP ratification process in TDWG and begin promotion, training and support across the GBIF network (see §3.3)

Conduct a systematic review of all documentation to reflect changes in standards, GBIF.org and new publishing tools

Continue work on habitat-relevant terms (Realm, Biome) and associated controlled vocabularies within the Darwin Core Task Group

Continue exploring use cases that require data modelling work, particularly those related to improved taxonomic checklist publishing and the targeted use of aggregate data from GBIF.org