Biodiversity Data Unlocked: Publishing in GBIF with IPT

A certain number of places will be attributed in priority to CUSO members.

Overview

This course will introduce participants to the process of publishing biodiversity data in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), using the Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT), with a focus for the research community. The IPT is a powerful, widely used tool developed by GBIF for publishing biodiversity and ecological data, including species occurrences and sampling events, in a standardized, FAIR-compliant format.

Participants will gain hands-on experience in preparing, structuring, and publishing datasets via the IPT, making them available for global reuse through the global platform of GBIF. The course will leverage documentation and learning resources from GBIF, including:

Many researchers, naturalists, collection managers, and institutions in Switzerland and beyond spend countless hours gathering species occurrence and ecological data. Yet a large proportion of this invaluable information never makes it into global biodiversity data networks, despite the various channels that exist in Switzerland, established by specific partner networks (Infospecies data centres and natural history museums) that facilitate the dissemination of data in an organised manner. When datasets remain unpublished, the effort behind them stays hidden from the broader scientific and conservation communities and cannot contribute to the global understanding of species distributions, trends, and environmental change. By participating in this course, you will gain the knowledge and practical skills to overcome technical and conceptual barriers to publishing your datasets through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the world’s largest open-access platform for biodiversity occurrence data.

The course addresses the growing demand for FAIR data publication in biodiversity research, aligning with Swiss and international open science initiatives. Researchers and biodiversity data holders will learn to make their data discoverable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). Publishing your data in standardised, FAIR-compliant formats not only increases its visibility and reuse potential but also bolsters Swiss contributions to global research and biodiversity monitoring initiatives. GBIF-mediated data are widely used in ecology, conservation planning, climate research, and policy analysis, and underpin thousands of scientific studies annually. By learning to use the Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) and relevant community standards such as Darwin Core, you will be able to transform datasets that might otherwise languish on local drives or in inaccessible formats into interoperable resources discoverable by researchers around the world.

Audience

This course is designed for PhD students, postdoctoral and other researchers in the life sciences who are working with species occurrences, ecological monitoring data or other pertinent data.

Aimed at beginners, the training combines clear explanations with hands‑on exercises that demystify the data‑publishing process and empower you to take the next step beyond data collection: data mobilisation. You’ll learn how to ensure your hard work contributes to global efforts to understand, protect, and restore biodiversity. By sharing your data openly, you help build a richer, more complete picture of life on Earth and amplify the impact of your research within Switzerland and internationally.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the participants are expected to:

Apply biodiversity data standards, specifically Darwin Core and Ecological Metadata Language.
Prepare and structure datasets for publication.
Use the IPT for metadata creation and publishing datasets.
Manage licensing and ensure compliance with GBIF publishing standards and tracking system.
nn Share and integrate datasets into the GBIF network to boost visibility and reuse.

Prerequisites

Knowledge / competencies

This course is designed for beginners. There are no specific requirements, but some notions on the structure used by GBIF to organise data (Metadata-only, Occurrences, Sample events, Checklists), together with basic knowledge on standards, such as Darwin Core and Ecological Metadata Language, can be an advantage.
We recommend the following video tutorials:

Technical

You are required to bring your own laptop, and it would be an advantage to have your own dataset, but this is not mandatory. An access to the IPT-test used for the course will be provided before.

Schedule

Day 1- AM: Introduction to Biodiversity Data Publishing
Day 1- PM: Darwin Core Standards & Data Preparation
Day 2- AM: Publishing with IPT
Day 2- PM: Advanced Topics & Wrap-up

Application

The registration fees for academics are 200 CHF and 1000 CHF for for-profit companies.

While participants are registered on a first come, first served basis, exceptions may be made to ensure diversity and equity, which may increase the time before your registration is confirmed.

You will be informed by email of your registration confirmation. Upon reception of the confirmation email, participants will be asked to confirm attendance by paying the fees within 5 days.

Applications close on 07/05/2026. Deadline for free-of-charge cancellation is set to 07/05/2026. Cancellation after this date will not be reimbursed. Please note that participation in SIB courses is subject to our general conditions.

Venue and Time

This course will take place at Universität Bern.

The course will start at 9:00 CET and end around 17:00 CET.

Precise information will be provided to the registered participants in due time.

Additional information

Coordination: Valeria Di Cola, SIB Training Group.

We will recommend 0.5 ECTS credits for this course (given a passed exam at the end of the course).

You are welcome to register to the SIB courses mailing list to be informed of all future courses and workshops, as well as all important deadlines using the form here.

Please note that participation in SIB courses is subject to our general conditions.

SIB abides by the ELIXIR Code of Conduct. Participants of SIB courses are also required to abide by the same code.

For more information, please contact training@sib.swiss.

Automatische Übersetzung