Webinar: BIOFAIR Data Network Listening Sessions - A Summary
2024-11-13 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
The Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN), in collaboration with the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), held a series of domain-focused virtual listening sessions over the summer to engage an expansive set of stakeholders toward Building an Integrated, Open, Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (BIOFAIR) Data Network. The sessions convened stakeholders from the federal agency, genetic and genomic data, One Health, ecological data, climate and environmental data, and biodiversity informatics communities to explore the initiation of a comprehensive biological and environmental data network through the creation of a collaborative and accessible partnership. Brief summaries from each of these sessions are available on the links above.
The final summary report focusing on the areas of unity across the six virtual Listening Sessions is now available. The steering committee will be holding a webinar on Wednesday, November 13, 2024 at 3:00 PM ET to discuss this report and to gather additional feedback to inform preparations for the upcoming interdisciplinary workshop (February 2025) to develop recommendations and create a roadmap towards a FAIR, open, and integrated data network.
Intended audience:

Collections and curatorial professionals across natural history disciplines
Biodiversity researchers, students, and individuals working on or interested in issues of data sharing, management, and integration

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BIOFAIR Data Network: Open Mic for Data!
2025-10-30 11:00 - 12:30
The BIOFAIR Team invites you to participate in an online community forum regarding the integration of FAIR biological and environmental data.
Date: October 30, 2025
Time: 11:00 AM-12:30 PM Eastern Time (10:00-11:30 AM Central/8:00-9:30 AM Pacific)
Location: Zoom (Link will be shared upon registration)
View the presentation slides.
View the recording.
Over the past 18 months, the National Science Foundation-funded BIOFAIR Data Network project (Building an Integrated, Open, Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable Data Network) has engaged more than 200 stakeholders to explore the development of an integrated network of genomic, ecological, climatological, geological, biodiversity, behavioral, human health, and other data. Together, we identified five major focus areas that are key elements to the development of an integrated network of biological and environmental data, as seen in the figure below. (Check out our final report, publication and podcast.)

The upcoming Open Mic for Data! is the culminating event of the BIOFAIR Data Network project. We would like to conclude the project by hearing from you. We welcome informal “lightning” presentations (1–5 minutes long) about data integration work that you are doing, actively planning, or contemplating relating to any of these areas. Projects stymied by a lack of integrated data are also of interest. Our goal here is not to recap work that has already been completed, but rather to provide a glimpse into work that is still in a formative stage that could benefit from or contribute to a nascent collaborative effort to create a BIOFAIR Data Network.
If you are interested in trying out new ideas about the technical or social aspects of data integration, or potential uses of integrated data, this could be a great opportunity to obtain feedback or connect with potential collaborators!
Register at the link below to attend. Submissions have now closed for lightning talks.
REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED

The program will feature the following lightning talks:

Macrostrat as an integration point for biological and geochemical data – Shanan Peters, University of Wisconsin-Madison

A taxonomic name is the key to the knowledge about a specimen – Donat Agosti, Plazi

The use of Wikidata for recording identifiers for Collecting Expedition for Open Linked Data – Robert Cubey, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Community science can bring together natural history collections and historical survey data – Randy Singer, Augusta University

Integrating ancient environmental DNA with the Neotoma Paleoecology Database – Jack Williams, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Exploring Wikibase as a platform for the Sherwin Carlquist Extended Specimen Network – Jason Best, Botanical Research Institute of Texas

Eco-evolutionary analyses of Global South biodiversity need better data – Israel Borokini, Montana State University, Bozeman

FAIRy: Upstream, Cross-Repo Submission-Readiness Checks (GEO/Zenodo) – Jennifer Slotnick, Datadabra

ZooMu Network Data Updates – Amanda Mazza, Duke University Lemur Center

Building the culture of data stewardship: an ocean data case study – Rachael Blake, Intertidal Agency
