The Portuguese Node of GBIF is hosted by the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), School of Agriculture, since September 2015.
In January 2013, FCT appointed the Tropical Research Institute (IICT) to be the Portuguese Node of GBIF (see protocol). This was a decision based on the recommendation made by the FCT Scientific Council of Biological Sciences and Environment, which recognises the strong capacity and infrastructure of IICT in the area of Biodiversity Informatics. IICT has strongly invested, in the last decade, in the digitization and free sharing of scientific collections through the Internet. It is the result of a strategy implemented to comply with the compromise assumed by Portugal in the 2003 Rio Summit of Science and Technology ministers of CPLP of making available, in digital form, the scientific patrimony, namely of African CPLP countries. In August 2015, the IICT was integrated into the University of Lisbon, having been proposed to the FCT that the new Node host institution should be the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, which was accepted.
In 2017, it was agreed by FCT, the University of Lisbon and Instituto Superior de Agronomia an extension of the hosting of the Node by the latter institution, for the period 2017-2018 (see addendum of the protocol).
Vision
Free and open sharing of primary biodiversity data enriches knowledge and value of Portuguese and World biodiversity.
Mission
Promote the integration of Portuguese data providers and resources of biodiversity information on the GBIF network, and the availability of biodiversity data for the scientific research and societal needs.
Principles
The implementation and practice of the Node will adhere to the following principles:
Independence, neutrality and trust
The purpose of the Node is to be independent and neutral ensuring the total equity between providers and between end-users. In order to call the maximum participation of data providers, the Node will work on the basis of trust.
Quality of information
It is crucial to guarantee a high standard of scientific quality of information made available by GBIF platform. The Node must assist the achievement of high levels of data quality by providers, facilitating access to informatics tools, documents and training made available by the GBIF Secretariat and others.
Quality and adaptability of service
The node will also ensure the quality of services in the retrieval, management, availability and delivery of information on mediated data between providers and GBIF end-users, while adjusting to users and society requirements.
Collaboration and cooperation
The Node will foster collaborative actions between providers, users, stakeholders and other members of the network (namely the Secretariat and other nodes) that pursue the goals of GBIF, with special focus on the cooperation of institutions or organisms from Portugal or from the Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).
