OpenPSD: Promoting publication and use of private-sector data on biodiversity

Published on September 11, 2019

A significant amount of biodiversity data are recorded every year by private companies. These data are reported on Environmental Impact Assessment studies and monitoring programs to national agencies, but most often the data remains locked in reports and thus unavailable to the wider society.

There are several reasons for this, such as: (i) biodiversity data is not in the core businesses of private companies owning the data, especially if studies are subcontracted to biodiversity consultants; (ii) companies may fail to identify incentives to allocate resources for opening data to society; (iii) companies may fail to identify clear pathways and tools to publish open data; (iv) data might be unstructured within company departments or partners, not properly curated or managed; (v) companies may be reluctant to share data that may be used in unintended ways; and (vi) companies may be unaware of national requirements for open data publication with public co-funding.

Considering the experiences of the Norwigian and Portuguese Nodes of GBIF - countries where private companies are already sharing their FAIR and open data - this project will develop activities of mentorship, workshops, content and documents to promote ad engage the private sector into publishing and using biodiversity data. Moreover, the Nodes from Colombia, France and Spain will use this experience to develop strategies to promote the engagement in their own countries.

The colaboration form the private sector and from the academy is essencial, and two companies are partners in this project: EDP - Energias de Portugal and Asplan Viak AS (Norway), as they are already GBIF. publishers. EDP receives assistence from a research laboratory, CiBIO/ InBIO, and both companies will be part of workshops, where they will share their experience and knowlegde regarding the process with the others.

Objectives

Specific objectives are:

i) the identification of activities sectors and typologies of private companies, and their roles as biodiversity data owners or producers;

ii) to provide guidance on developing internal documentation for private companies, covering open data, GBIF, benefits for the company and the society, indicators, licensing, recognition, costs and a roadmap to become a data publisher;

iii) to provide opportunities for experience exchange between companies about motivation and benefits, through workshops and promotion materials. The project will produce deliverables such as a toolkit, that will help GBIF nodes to develop strategies to engage with the private sector.