Participant nodes and biodiversity information facilities help GBIF Participants increase the return from their past, current, and future investments in biodiversity research and data collection. They help make the publication of primary data part of the scientific mainstream: while a well-established tradition exists for publishing the results of biodiversity research, one for publishing the primary data on which those results are based does not yet, despite the fact that it enables further analyses. In their facilitating role, nodes help data holders publish their data using common standards and protocols to ensure interoperability and open access and make data available for the widest possible reuse. They also contribute to commitments that promote transparency and open access to scientific data, helping data holders comply with open data regulations and requirements.
Nodes play a valuable role in promoting data management practices and in encouraging the community of biodiversity knowledge-holders to pool their expertise. This work can in turn continuously improve the quality and fitness-for-use of available biodiversity data and provide a platform for taxonomy and collaborative collection management.
By coordinating biodiversity information facilities, nodes are well positioned to assess biodiversity data availability and gaps (taxonomic, spatial and temporal) at the Participant level, to understand data and information use and needs, and to implement strategies in response. Thus, nodes can contribute to setting biodiversity research priorities.
Nodes play a role in coordinating the broad landscape of biodiversity informatics initiatives by engaging new communities and making international connections through GBIF. This coordination helps should seek to create strong partnerships and alignment of efforts, complementing other biodiversity-related initiatives by providing the data foundations and infrastructure for a wide range of applications.
Nodes can also increase the efficiency of implementing a biodiversity information facility by making use of the common tools, practices, information resources and opportunities for collaborative capacity enhancement available through the GBIF network. By making the connection to GBIF, nodes enable the integration of data mobilized at the Participant level with relevant data published by other countries and organizations. Data mobilized through a Participant biodiversity information facility so serve national needs also become available for reuse by the broader international audience, raising the visibility of the Participant’s data publishing institutions and mobilization efforts.
Finally, Participant nodes help develop capacity in the use of collective biodiversity data resources. Their efforts support both basic and applied research relevant to policy decisions across a range of issues of primary economic and social importance, including food security, agricultural livelihoods, disease risk and the impacts of climate change. This also supports information requirements for meeting national and global commitments including biodiversity-related conventions and sustainable development goals. Thus, fully functional Participant nodes and biodiversity information facilities are instrumental in helping Participants achieve their own biodiversity data-related goals and targets.