SinBIOTA 2.0 - BIOTA-FAPESP Program's information system: planning the next 10 years

• Grant number: 09/53151-0
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: December 01, 2009 - November 30, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computer Systems
• Cooperation agreement: Microsoft Research
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Alfredo Joly
• Grantee: Carlos Alfredo Joly
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

For the last 10 years, SinBiota, the information system of the Biota-FAPESP Program, has served the community storing data, showing them in maps, and providing a common base for researchers in different areas to communicate and exchange biodiversity data. State administration has also used the system to support new laws and regulations. Now it is time to rethink the system, which has grown in an ad-hoc unstructured way, aiming at the support that will be needed for the next 10 years. Usage of the system in certain conditions, such as for field work, for instance, were not initially anticipated by the original plan. In addition, system extensions to allow data exchange with modeling tools for species niches and climatic change scenarios, or integration with molecular data from GenBank, DNA barcoding, and other important data repositories were not initially envisaged. (AU)