Call for proposals to mobilize data on soil biodiversity

Project grants from GBIF and SoilBON seek to increase the amount of data on soil biodiversity worldwide, enabling researchers to address vital ecological questions
DEADLINE: 10 July 2022

Soil biodiversity plays a vital role in crucial ecosystem functions around human health, nutrition, and recreation, yet data on the organisms that comprise soil biodiversity remain underrepresented in GBIF.

To improve the data’s fitness for use in answering key research and policy questions, GBIF and the Soil Biodiversity Observation Network (SoilBON) have issued an open call for proposals from projects that can mobilize open data on soil biodiversity.

SoilBON is a global collaboration between the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI), the Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSOLAN), and numerous other partners, focused on making better use of available knowledge about soil biodiversity and ecosystem services.

“This open call provides an opportunity to shed some light on blind-spot regions,” said Carlos Guerra, co-leader of SoilBON. “Bringing us closer to conserving and understanding soil biodiversity and its relations with people who rely on soil living resources for their well-being and livelihoods.”

The call will support between five to seven projects in all with selected researchers receiving up to $5,000 USD per project. All the data from this initiative will follow GBIF standards and data licensing guidelines, and datasets from underrepresented regions will receive priority consideration.

The deadline for SoilBON to receive proposals is Sunday, 10 July 2022 at 23:59 MDT (UTC-6).

“This call is essential to filling gaps in soil biodiversity data available through GBIF,” said Dmitry Schigel, GBIF Scientific Officer. “It underpins our goal to enable researchers to discover more relevant data to help them address the most pressing questions in their fields of study. It’s time for soil ecologists to get their turn.”