Spanish FM Jose Manuel Albares will host the meeting with EU officials and Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza

Cloudflare is urging the EU Commission to exclude the company from its upcoming Piracy Watch List, despite requests from several rightsholder groups for its inclusion. The American company says it's committed to addressing piracy concerns but not at the expense of user privacy and security. Instead, the European Commission should ensure that its Piracy Watch List does not become a tool for advocating policy changes.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

A large number of motorists gathered in a queue to fill petrol in Karachi on Friday, July 5, 2024. — PPI Govt to announce fresh rates on Nov 15.New prices to come into effect on Nov 16.Federal govt hiked prices in previous review.

KARACHI: The price of petroleum...

Channing Tatum teases possible on-screen reunion with Ryan Reynolds

Channing Tatum hinted at the possibility of reuniting with Ryan Reynolds for a future project.

On November 12, Tatum shared an Instagram post from Reynolds where the Deadpool & Wolverine actor hinted at a...

'Euphoria' season three big update revealed

After a long wait, HBO has confirmed that season three of Euphoria will air in January 2025.

Casey Bloys, the network's head, shared the update after rumours of delays dogged the series.

"We are shooting 'Euphoria,'" the head honcho...

Musadik Masood Malik says rate of petroleum levy to also decrease with increase in tax-to-GDP ratio

Robin Kachfi & Jan Mihaly won Sosh Urban Motion EU wildcard contest 2017

Robin Kachfi and Jan Mihaly just won the SoshUrbanMotion EU wildcard contest 2017 and they have now the chance to visit Paris, FR, for the main contest, where they will meet Tyler Fernengel/Rich Forne, Markus Wilke/Bruno Hoffmann, Joris Coulomb/Romain Fel, Julián Molina/Fernando Marmolejo, DeMarcus Paul/Will Huynh and Emeric Michon/Vincent Jokovic. Huge Congrats guys! More infos on Freedombmx.de
All the best, Your kunstform BMX Shop Team!

Video: Robin Kachfi

Subscribe our youtube channel: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/kunstformbmxshop

This year's European BMX Trade Show will take place from 23.-24.6.2018 at the Kölner Jugendpark. The only theme is BMX! At the EBTS, Distributions, as well as passionate BMXers or bloody beginners, can get extensive advice on the new BMX products for the upcoming season. To give the visitors a better view into the BMX Sport, there is, as every year, a BMX show with well-known professional riders. Currently, Traffic Distribution, SIBMX (Sport Import), 24/7 Distribution, G & S Distribution and Unity BMX Distribution have registered as exhibitors.

Click here for more: EBTS

All the best, your kunstform BMX Shop Team!

What:
European BMX Trade Show 2018

When:
Saturday
Dealers Only
Sa 23th of June 2018
10:00am – 18:00pm (Local time)


Sunday
Public Day
Su 24th June 2018
2:00pm – 4:00pm (Local time)
(10:00am – 14:00pm – Dealers Only) (Local time)


Where:
European BMX Trade Show 2018
Sachsenbergstr. / Zoobrücke
51063 Köln

Felix Prangenberg got a new interview on RideUK. He talks about his current life as BMX Pro and the upcoming future.
Check the whole interview, inclusive all photos now on RideUK!

Please click here to read the interview at rideUk.

All the best, your kunstform BMX Shop Team!



Fotos: Aaron Zwaal

Article: RideUK

On 13.07.2019 the 4. Cross Valley Contest takes place in Ferndorf (Germany) on the Skate- & Bikepark Kreuztal. Dirtline – Bowl – Street – Pumptrack für Skateboard, Scooter and BMX


What: Skate- & Bikepark Kreuztal

When: 13.07.2019, 3:00 am

Where:
Skate- & Bike Anlage Kreuztal
57223 Ferndorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany


More infos on Facebook of CrossValley Contest #4.

All the best, your kunstform BMX Shop Team!

As previously reported, our Sis Lara Lessmann went to Spain with the Bros Robin Kachfi, Michael Meisel and Julian Bachmann to stack tons of clips for a new video, but unfortunately got injured right on day 1. In his travel vlog part 1, Robin takes you on the trip and you can find out what the crew has experienced so far. Stay tuned for part 2 and check back soon!

Have fun with the video, your kunstform BMX Shop Team!

Video: Robin Kachfi

Related links:

• all products of kunstform
• Robin's YouTube Channel

Yewhenii Skrebov, also known as Eugen, can often be seen in Berlin's skate parks. He is always motivated and greets everyone with a smile. No matter whether it's a street or a park, Eugen feels comfortable wherever the mood is good.

BMX since: 2017
BMX discipline: Park/Street
Hometown: Bila Tserkva (Ukraine)
Place of residence: Berlin
Sponsors: kunstform BMX Shop
Homespots: Gleisdreieck Bowl Berlin
Favorite activity other than BMX: PC Game (Dota2)
Instagram: @jmenya_bmx

Efter et anonymt tip om Den Internationale Domstols igangværende undersøgelser om formodet Folkedrab begået af Israel har EBU øjeblikkeligt udelukket den israelske deltager fra at deltage i aftenens finale. 

Indlægget Israel smidt ud af Eurovision: Anklager om folkedrab i strid med konkurrencereglerne blev først udgivet på RokokoPosten.

blog

Italian authorities say a network of European art forgers who painted fake Warhols, Banksys and Picassos and then tried to sell them to unsuspecting buyers with the help of complicit auction houses has been dismantled.

Artifacts and human remains taken by a Norwegian explorer and anthropologist in the late 1940s are being returned by a museum in Oslo to Chile's remote territory of Easter Island in the mid-Pacific, the Kon-Tiki Museum said Wednesday.

Manchester United secured its first win in Europe for more than a year by beating PAOK 2-0 in the Europa League on Thursday.

The Washington Capitals traded a 2027 third-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick to the rival Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for forward Lars Eller, the team announced on Tuesday.

Democratic House candidate Eugene Vindman was victorious Wednesday over his Republican opponent for Virginia's 7th District.

Ukraine's military is seeing results with a new border-focused strategy after the White House eased the restrictions on Kyiv's use of U.S.-provided weapons to attack Russian targets just across the border, the Pentagon's top spokesman said in an interview this week.

"Outlander" is returning with the concluding episodes of its seventh season this month, but its stars have already wrapped official production on the show's eighth and final season.

Musician Art Garfunkel recently reunited with on-again/off-again musical partner Paul Simon, looking to reconcile their differences and make amends.

President-elect Donald Trump's resounding victory may spell doom for the anti-freedom, anti-prosperity international movement that is the push for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Europe for urgent meetings on Ukraine with NATO and European Union officials following last week's U.S. presidential election and the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January.

A Wisconsin man apparently faked his own drowning this summer so he could abandon his family and flee to eastern Europe, investigators say.

Spencer Shrader is next up in the New York Jets' kicking shuffle.

Facebook and Instagram users in Europe will get the option to see less personalized ads if they don't want to pay for an ad-free subscription, social media company Meta said Tuesday, bowing to pressure from Brussels over digital competition concerns.

Meta announced changes to its targeted advertising policy this week after European Union regulators said the company wasn't doing enough to restrict the amount of information sold to ad agencies.

IOC presidential candidate Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. has urged European lawmakers to regard investing in sport as a public health policy in his first keynote speech of a six-month Olympic leadership campaign.

The president of the suspended Russian Olympic Committee said Tuesday he plans to step down after six years in charge.

The EU BON project is pleased to announce the International Symposium "Nature and Governance – Biodiversity Data, Science, and the Policy Interface", which was held in Berlin from 11 to 12 February. The symposium aimed at clarifying and popularizing EU BON's objectives prior to the official EU BON Kick-off Meeting held from 13 to 15 February 2013.

The symposium was hosted by the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and brought together high-ranking speakers and guests from across the world to talk and discuss the different aspects of the EU BON Project. Among the main issues covered was the future of biodiversity information, the challenges in front of new data policies, new approaches in collecting information, and ways to engage the public in biodiversity monitoring and assessments.

The EU BON project was started on 1 December, 2012, and will continue for 4.5 years. The aim of EU BON is to build a substantial part and contribute to the Group on Earth Observation's Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), through an innovative approach of integration of biodiversity information systems. The project, built as an answer to the need of a new integrated biodiversity data, will facilitate access to this knowledge and will effectively improve the work in the field of biodiversity observation in general.

###

For more information on the symposium and the events planned, please visit our programme page.

All interested parties are most welcome to attend the symposium or to follow it on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

Additional information

EU BON (2012) stands for "Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network" and is a European research project, financed by the 7th EU framework programme for research and development (FP7). EU BON seeks ways to better integrate biodiversity information and implement into policy and decision-making of biodiversity monitoring and management in the EU.

GEO BON stands for "Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network". It coordinates activities relating to the Societal Benefit Area (SBA) on Biodiversity of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Some 100 governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations are collaborating through GEO BON to organise and improve terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity observations globally and make their biodiversity data, information and forecasts more readily accessible to policymakers, managers, experts and other users. Moreover, GEO BON has been recognized by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. More information at: http://www.earthobservations.org/geobon.shtml.

The news about the International Symposium "Nature and Governance – Biodiversity Data, Science, and the Policy Interface" and the official EU BON Kickoff Meeting has been reflected in the January newsletter of the The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

GBIF only features high end biodiversity news and major projects. EU BON project summary is placed in the collaborations section of the newsletter and the two events are included in the Upcoming Events, pointed out to the readers' attention.

To view the GBIF newsletter for January, please go to: http://www.gbif.org/communications/resources/newsletters/, or see the newsletter PDF attached below.

Zur Unterstützung der Beteiligung des MfN an EU BON ist am Museum für Naturkunde Berlin zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt eine vorerst auf 2 Jahre befristete (mit der Option der Verlängerung)
Position eines/einer Wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiters/in mit 75% der regelmäßigen wöchentlichen Arbeitszeit Entgeltgruppe E13 TV-L Berlin zu besetzen
Aufgabengebiete:
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeit und eigenständige Durchführung spezifischer Aufgaben innerhalb des EU BON Projektes, vor allem innerhalb der Arbeitspakete 1 (Datenquellen) und 2 (Datenintegration), i.b.
- Datenrecherche und Erstellung von Übersichten für EU BON relevanter Daten- und Informationsquellen;
- Bewertung und Lückenanalyse bestehender Datenbanken und Informationssysteme zur Biodiversität;
- Harmonisierung, Aktualisierung und Koordinierung taxonomischer Referenz-Datenbanken i.b. für Europa;
- Unterstützung der Einführung und Verbesserung von Datenstandards zur Verbesserung der Integration und Interoperabilität unterschiedlicher Datenebenen
- Mitwirkung bei Erprobung neuer Datenerhebungsansätze und –verfahren, auch im Gelände
- Planung und Durchführung von Projekttreffen und -veranstaltungen
- Erstellung von Ergebnisberichten und wissenschaftlichen Präsentationen / Veröffentlichungen.

The European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON), a European project on biodiversity data, was launched in December 2012. The Belgian Biodiversity Platform attended the symposium connected to the EU BON kick-off meeting in Berlin, Germany, on 11-12th February 2013.
The symposium entitled ‘Nature and Governance: Biodiversity Data, Science, and the Policy Interface’ highlighted the importance of biodiversity data for policy-making and research.  The complexity of producing and collating data on an international scale involving different methods and disciplines was well illustrated. The importance of the accessibility of biodiversity data within an integrated system was well demonstrated - the sum of all contributions will in the end enable monitoring, forecasting and policy-making.
EU BON will create a substantial part of the Group on Earth’s Observation’s Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) and will operate in support of biodiversity sciences and policy initiatives, such as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
EU BON will build on existing components, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), LifeWatch infrastructures and national biodiversity data centers. As Belgian GBIF node, the Belgian Biodiversity Platform can provide an important support to the development of EU BON. The Belgian partners in the EU BON project are the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), and the National Botanic Garden of Belgium (Botanic Garden).
We will follow with interest the development in the EU BON project and will continue publishing data through GBIF. If you would like to support this initiative by having your data published on GBIF, please contact André Heughebaert (GBIF node manager), Dimitri Brosens or Kristina Articus (Biodiversity Experts).

The official Kickoff meeting of the Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON) project, organized by the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, took place on 13-15 February 2013 to formally mark the beginning of the project and to set goals and objectives for the future. Among the hottest issues discussed was the integration of EU BON's framework with the Global Earth Biodiversity Observation Network project GEO BON and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Another intention set for the future is the enhanced communication and synchronization between the various partners and work packages.

The main objective set for EU BON is to facilitate with its contributions, and thus build a substantial part of GEO BON. EU BON Advisory Board, comprising ten leading experts in data management, biodiversity conservation and earth observation realms has been set up. Dr. Wouter Los - Chairman of the Expert centre for Taxonomic Identification (ETI), and 2nd Vice Chair of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Governing Board (GBIF) was elected as a chair of the EU BON Advisory Board. It has been decided, with the directions and help of the EU BON's Advisory Board, to achieve that a substantial amount of work should be done towards a more comprehensive vision of the relationship between the two projects and the place EU BON takes as a major contributor.

Another aim delineated is working towards collaboration between the currently fragmented biodiversity data sources in Europe in an attempt to create an integrated network and framework for the benefit of the project objective itself, and GEO BON eventually. Dialogue and association with similar or relevant biodiversity projects and initiatives, on European and Global levels, are also encouraged. Organizing a conference is on the project's to do list.

Enhanced communication between the different partners and work packages has been outlined as the engine for achieving of the projects main objectives. A second official meeting has been already assigned for 2014 to measure the progress of EU BON and to set further goals. Meanwhile partners are already organizing workshops to work towards reflecting the directions for development currently set.

On March 18 2013 the BHL-Europe portal has gone officially live. The Biodiversity heritage library for Europe project began in 2009 and joins noteworthy European museum and botanical gardens, including some in the USA as well. The primary goal of the project was to create an indexed archival system for digitized scientific literature, and free access to this literature via a multifunctional portal (www.bhl-europe.eu).
The portal makes available 6,149 books containing one million pages from 92 content providers at the moment, but this is just the initial offering. New material is added every day, and the growth is projected to increase over time. The BHL-Europe portal (and other international sources) is linked to the Biodiversity Library Exhibition  platform, which publishes selected literature in the form of interesting themes, information and an attractive design. Thanks to the specific presentation of literature and interesting scientific items, the platform has significant educational potential.

You can access the BHL-Europe portal here: www.bhl-europe.eu
Read more about the portal on the official BHL blog:  http://bhleurope.blogspot.cz/2013/03/bhl-europe-is-finally-officially-live.html

The first meeting of Work Package 5 (EU BON testing and validation of concepts, tools, and services) was held between 2^nd and 4^th April, 2013 in the Doñana Biological Station, in Spain. 23 people from 10 different institutions (7 of the EU BON consortium) worked towards building a draft on Principles and Guidelines for establishing and operating EU BON test sites.

During the meeting the members agreed on starting documenting each of the sites, using a common format to be decided in May on the Informatics Task Force meeting of WP2 (Data integration and interoperability) in Norway. A data inventory will also be built in each of the sites, adding monitoring protocols in stepwise fashion.

In addition the meeting served to get a better view of the variety of Ecosystems in Doñana as well as the monitoring protocols that are being conducted in this area. 

A main obstacle to reach the 2010 biodiversity goals and to implement the European Biodiversity Strategy is lacking integration of biodiversity aspects into political, economic, and management decisions in different sectors mainly due to knowledge gaps. EU BON will provide access to sound data sources and scientific knowledge that is reliable, relevant, up-todate, and publicly available. Europe maintains substantial capacities to generate and manage such knowledge and to provide data relevant to assessing and managing our biological resources. These capacities concern research and technology development, tools for information management and infrastructure, and procedures for the development and implementation of well-informed environmental policies. 

In order to meet the demands of the main political stakeholders in the EU, in this workshop an overview of the project will be given and first results will be shown summarized in the first show case which is dealing with datasets in relation to political targets and indicators. In addition, the idea how the science–policy/management interface can function for example via the planned European Biodiversity Portal will be presented and the requirements for policy (political administration) discussed.

Results of this first stakeholder round table will be documented and passed back to the project in order to increase its relevance. Next stakeholder round tables can be used to evaluate the progress of the project with regard to serving the demands of EC, EEA, GEO BON, IPBES and other stakeholders.

The first EU BON Stakeholder Round Table is now approaching. The workshop will take place in Brussels on 18 June 2013 and be hosted by the Leibniz Association. A main obstacle to reach the 2010 biodiversity goals and to implement the European Biodiversity Strategy is the lacking integration of biodiversity aspects into political, economic, and management decisions in different sectors mainly due to knowledge gaps. The aim of the 1-day workshop will be to identify existing gaps, determine current needs regarding biodiversity information and develop solutions to overcome the existing knowledge gaps within the EU BON project.

EU BON will provide access to biodiversity information that is reliable, relevant, up-to-date, and publicly available. In the first Stakeholder Round Table, the EU BON approach for establishing a European Biodiversity Observation Network will be outlined. Based on that introduction, existing approaches that compile biodiversity or biodiversity-relevant data and the possible synergies and possible contributions to EU BON will be discussed. Another important aspect of the meeting will be to highlight the link to policy and governments of the European Union and their specific needs regarding biodiversity information.

Results of this first stakeholder round table will be documented and passed back to the project in order to increase its relevance. Next stakeholder round tables can be used to evaluate the progress of the project with regard to serving the demands of EC, EEA, GEO BON, IPBES, JRC and other stakeholders.

The EUBrazilOpenBio project  announces two new training tools as a part of its e-training Programme aiming at educating and enabling current and potential users of EUBrazilOpenBio to unlock new knowledge and shape effective policy on biodiversity challenges. The new tools cover the following use cases: Ecological Niche Modeling and Cross-mapping.

The EUBrazilOpenBio anytime, anywhere eTraining tools are designed for researchers in the spheres of Biodiversity, Life science, Climate Change, application Developers as well as regulatory authorities and policy decision-makers.

EUBrazilOpenBio is focused on tackling the complexity of biodiversity science such as the diversity of multidisciplinary datasets spanning from climatology to earth sciences by integrating advanced computing resources with data sources across Europe and Brazil.

For more informationand to try out the new tools click here.

The first EU BON Stakeholder Round Table was held on 18 June 2013 at the Leibniz Association in Brussels, under the motto "Requirements for Policy".

Important topics regarding biodiversity information were discussed with political stakeholders and a variety of valuable recommendations were given for the future process of EU BON. Among the participants were members of the European policy, representatives of recent European biodiversity projects and EU BON members. At the round table, intensive discussions took place regarding what biodiversity policy needs, like which indicators and measurements are needed to answer burning policy questions. Suggestions were made to formalize Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV’s) and Aichi targets. A future approach was set towards producing a guideline and timeline for indicators that should be established within EU BON.

The challenges of future research policy were also discussed and the collaboration of EU BON with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) will be a substantial part of the continuous contributions to the global process. EU BON should also serve as a showcase for the European Commission in this respect. EU BON will also be responsible for answering crucial questions regarding data policy, e.g. how to establish a general repository for a long-lasting storage of data and how to handle ‘big data’. Another future task will be to integrate EU relevant projects and initiatives and their data portals, datasets and metadata.

At the round table it was also discussed how public stakeholders can be involved in the future, particularly citizen scientists, so that they could be integrated in EU BON and provide useful information for scientists and researchers.

Among the participants were representatives of major biodiversity stakeholders including Gilles Ollier, Jane Shiel and Sofie Vandewoestijne - European Commission, DG Research and Innovation; Anne Teller - European Commission, DG Environment;  Georgios Sarantakos - GEO Secretariat; Cigdem Adem - European Environment Agency; representatives of recent European biodiversity projects (FunDiv, BioFresh, STEP and INSPIRE) and EU BON members.

Presentations:

From 16^th to the 18^th of July, a European stakeholder consultation for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES) took place in Leipzig (Germany). The consultation was organized by three European Biodiversity Platforms: Network-Forum Biodiversity Research Germany (NeFo), the Belgian Biodiversity Platform, and the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) (further information on the conference: www.biodiversity.de/index.php/de/ipbes/nefo-aktivitaeten-zu-ipbes/workshops/pan-european-stakeholder-consultation).

IPBES will greatly influence future biodiversity policy and research, and EU BON is expected to provide a European contribution to IPBES. IPBES will be in particular of high interest, because it will need tools to integrate and analyse different data sources, to develop relevant infrastructure and to do assessments of state and trends of biodiversity at multiple scales.

EU BON was represented by several partners at the meeting and we acted as facilitators in the round-tables, gathered input for the project, participated in discussions and exchanged ideas with many representatives and colleagues. We provide you with a short summary of the meeting below.

The aims of the pan-European stakeholder consultation meeting in Leipzig were:

1. To reach out to stakeholders to inform people and institutes and to raise awareness of the dynamics in IPBES.
2. To discuss and obtain feedback on several IPBES-related documents that are currently being drafted. In their final form these documents will be submitted to the Panel for the IPBES 2 plenary session in 9-14 December 2013.

The meeting in Leipzig was organized around round table discussions of several draft documents of importance for stakeholders: the draft work programme, the stakeholder engagement strategy draft and the draft "Vision for pan-European IPBES support perspective". If you are interested these documents, currently for review, can be found here:  http://www.ipbes.net/intersessional-process/current-review-documents-ipbes2.html .

There were several opportunities for EU BON partners to flag the potential biodiversity data and analysis requirements for the future IPBES work program in separate discussions and to give recommendations as to what should be additionally integrated in the draft work programme.

We also brainstormed on a potential EU BON side event at the second IPBES meeting, which will be held in 9-14 December in Antalya, Turkey. Topics discussed by national delegates in that plenary will amongst other topics comprise: the first work programme, budget, stakeholder engagement, the position of observers, technical requirements and a list of thematic priorities for IPBES assessments.

Although the meeting was a success in terms of the number and diversity of participants, the consultation felt for many participants as a top down exercise. However, the importance of being involved at this stage was felt and the hope for stakeholder empowerment in the future was often voiced.

The 2014 SCIENCE POLICY SYMPOSIUM to support the implementation of the 2020 Biodiversity strategy and the EU Water Framework Directive will be held between 29-30 Jan 2014 in the Museum of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Brussels. The symposium is jointly organised by the EU FP7 funded projects BioFresh and REFRESH.

Numerous EU biodiversity and water related policies have been designed to protect freshwater ecosystems and ensure their sustainable use. However, major challenges still persist in the implementation of these policies. Freshwater ecosystems support 10% of all animal species on Earth and provide a diverse array of functions and services that contribute to human well-being. In recent decades global freshwater biodiversity has declined at a greater rate compared to terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

The Science Policy Symposium for Freshwater Life is organised with the aim of bringing together policy makers and stakeholders from the water, energy and conservation sector, NGOs, the scientific community and selected experts to discuss challenges to implementing the 2020 Biodiversity strategy and the EU Water Framework Directive.

Contact: waterlives.commitee@freshwaterbiodiversity.eu

Taxonomic descriptions, introduced by Linnaeus in 1735, are designed to allow scientists to tell one species from another. Now there is a new futuristic method for describing new species that goes far beyond the tradition. The new approach combines several techniques, including next generation molecular methods, barcoding, and novel computing and imaging technologies, that will test the model for big data collection, storage and management in biology. The study has just been published in the Biodiversity Data Journal.

While 13,494 new animal species were discovered by taxonomists in 2012, animal diversity on the planet continues to decline with unprecedented speed. Concerned with the rapid disappearance rates scientists have been forced towards a so called 'turbo taxonomy' approach, where rapid species description is needed to manage conservation.

While acknowledging the necessity of fast descriptions, the authors of the new study present the other 'extreme' for taxonomic description: "a new species of the future". An international team of scientists from Bulgaria, Croatia, China, UK, Denmark, France, Italy, Greece and Germany illustrated a holistic approach to the description of the new cave dwelling centipede species Eupolybothrus cavernicolus, recently discovered in a remote karst region of Croatia. The project was a collaboration between GigaScience, China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen and Pensoft Publishers.

Eupolybothrus cavernicolus has become the first eukaryotic species for which, in addition to the traditional morphological description, scientists have provided a transcriptomic profile, DNA barcoding data, detailed anatomical X-ray microtomography (micro-CT), and a movie of the living specimen to document important traits of its behaviour. By employing micro-CT scanning in a new species, for the first time a high-resolution morphological and anatomical dataset is created - the 'cybertype' giving everyone virtual access to the specimen.

This, most data-rich species description, represents also the first biodiversity project that joins the ISA (Investigation-Study-Assay) Commons, that is an approach created by the genomic and molecular biology communities to store and describe different data types collected in the course of a multidisciplinary study.

"Communicating the results of next generation sequencing effectively requires the next generation of data publishing" says Prof. Lyubomir Penev, Managing director of Pensoft Publishers. "It is not sufficient just to collect 'big' data. The real challenge comes at the point when data should be managed, stored, handled, peer-reviewed, published and distributed in a way that allows for re-use in the coming big data world", concluded Prof. Penev.

"Next generation sequencing is moving beyond piecing together a species genetic blueprint to areas such as biodiversity research, with mass collections of species in "metabarcoding" surveys bringing genomics, monitoring of ecosystems and species-discovery closer together. This example attempts to integrate data from these different sources, and through curation in BGI and GigaScience's GigaDB database to make it interoperable and much more usable," says Dr Scott Edmunds from BGI and Executive Editor of GigaScience.

Additional information:

Pensoft and the Natural History Museum London have received financial support by the EU FP7 projects ViBRANT and pro-iBiosphere. The China National GeneBank (CNGB) and GigaScience teams have received support from the BGI. The DNA barcodes were obtained through the International Barcode of Life Project supported by grants from NSERC and from the government of Canada through Genome Canada and the Ontario Genomics Institute.

Original Sources:

Stoev P, Komerički A, Akkari N, Shanlin Liu, Xin Zhou, Weigand AM, Hostens J, Hunter CI, Edmunds SC, Porco D, Zapparoli M, Georgiev T, Mietchen D, Roberts D, Faulwetter S, Smith V, Penev L (2013) Eupolybothrus cavernicolus Komerički & Stoev sp. n. (Chilopoda: Lithobiomorpha: Lithobiidae): the first eukaryotic species description combining transcriptomic, DNA barcoding and micro-CT imaging data. Biodiversity Data Journal 1: e1013. DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.1.e1013

Edmunds SC, Hunter CI, Smith V, Stoev P, Penev L (2013) Biodiversity research in the "big data" era: GigaScience and Pensoft work together to publish the most data-rich species description. GigaScience 2:14 doi:10.1186/2047-217X-2-14

Watch the 3D cybertype video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqPuwKG8hE4&feature=em-upload_owner

The final EUBrazilOpenBio newsletter for November 2013 is now available. The  newsletter presents the final press release showcasing the main results of 2 year collaborative work, namely: the innovative, web-based working environment designed to serve biodiversity scenarios; the new version of the Catalogue of Life cross-mapping tool developed in the i4Life project; the provision of the Ecological Niche Modelling tool as a service through the openModeller extended web service, and its application in collaboration with BioVeL; the EUBrazilOpenBio Joint Action Plan.

This newsletter highlights:

• EUBrazilOpenBio Joint Action Plan - drawing on policy strategies, analysing  current progress in contributing to international targets and defining actions for future collaborative research. It defines common actions with the aim of contributing to relevant Aichi Targets in the years ahead.
• EGI federatec use case on ecology - Over the last two years, BioVeL and EUBrazilOpenBio have joined forces to make openModeller ready for cloud deployment. Work within the EGI Federated Cloud Task Force has led to considerable success in enabling the openModeller service on the EGI Federated Cloud.
• EUBrazilOpenBio results - EUBrazilOpenBio Technical developments, training materials and sessions, publications and papers, media spotlights and policy results all collected in one page.
• A vision from the Experts - "The Crossmapper itself is a great tool, and an ideal way to identify errors and updates". Dr Christina Flann is one of the experts providing their vision on EUBrazilOpenBio story.

You can find an online version of the final EUBrazilOpenBio newsletter here.