GBIF invites proposals for developing high-throughput publishing workflows that facilitate the sharing and regular updating of biodiversity data derived from DNA barcoding and metabarcoding through the GBIF network. Applications from organizations that manage large DNA-derived biodiversity datasets are welcome, with funding of up to €20,000 available to successful applicants.

Each project applicant will have up to eight months to complete the work, with contracts expected to commence on 1 March 2027.

The maximum funding available is €20,000 per project. Payments will be made in instalments linked to agreed deliverables.

The work will be carried out at the project applicant’s own premises. The GBIF Secretariat will provide remote technical guidance and review, but not day-to-day development capacity.

Projects should deliver the following outputs:

Technical specification

A technical specification document developed together with the GBIF Secretariat describing the envisioned pipeline for publishing data through GBIF, including:

• Data and metadata mapping strategy
• Mechanisms for updating data
• Plan for long-term operation and maintenance
• Interoperability considerations, including use of persistent identifiers.

Data publication

One or more datasets published through GBIF demonstrating:

• Substantial increase in the data volume of DNA-derived records, online and discoverable via GBIF.org
• Rich metadata
• Successful updates through the pipeline
• Interoperability and/or data improvements (applicable for project applicants who seek to improve existing pipelines)
• Where relevant, improved metadata or interoperability with related infrastructures, for example, through persistent identifiers or links to sequence repositories.

Project applicants will be expected to participate in two online sessions if selected for funding:

• Start-up webinar (March 2027)
• Mid-project meeting (June 2027)

In order to be eligible for funding through this initiative, applicants must:

• Be a legal entity (for example, research institution, university, museum, NGO or government agency)
• Be registered and endorsed as a GBIF data publisher, and have accepted the GBIF Data Publisher Agreement, at the time of applying/evaluation
• Manage a large DNA or biodiversity data resource that can be published through GBIF under an open CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0 license
• Have the technical capacity to design and implement data-sharing pipelines
• In addition, applications led by a legal entity and/or involving partners from multiple organizations countries must include a letter of support from partners. Organizations that already participate in GBIF must include a statement of endorsement from the GBIF head of delegation or node manager.

Proposals must be submitted in English using this form by 30 November 2026, 17:00 CET (UTC+1).

Proposals must include the following information:

• Summary of the organization and its data infrastructure
• Brief description of the data and its relevance to GBIF, including taxonomic scope
• Estimated volume of data (number of occurrence records and locations covered)
• Metadata scope and richness
• Approach to attribution of original data producers, data citation and other acknowledgements
• Expected update frequency and projected data growth of the GBIF-discoverable data as a result of the contracted work;
• Description of existing pipelines and planned improvements (if applicable)
• Proposed technical approach and feasibility
• Expected technical support needed from GBIF
• Proposed timeline for the contract (up to eight months) and expected costs (up to €20,000 per project).