Biodiversity Data Unlocked: Publishing in GBIF with IPT

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:

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).

Audience

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

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.

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