WP3 Regional Focal Point networks

Objectives

• Strengthen the national and regional focal point Networks to improve the Access to local expertise and supporting various tasks related to the infrastructure of European species databases.
• Expand the frame work of focal point Networks by adding partners from the Palaearctic region outside of the EU.

Establishment of a Focal Point organisation

Taxonomic Regional Focal Points (FPs) are the interface between the pan-European (and global) taxonomic infrastructure and national or local institutions. This ‘European Focal Point Organisation’ would facilitate the participation of the FPs in European projects (in analogy with SMEBD) and constitute a central contact point for other organisations like GBIF, IUCN etcetera. The FP Organisation could help selling the expertise of the FPs and support their long-term sustenance.

Pan-European taxonomic standardisation

To reduce the discrepancies in taxonomic data among national databases and between the national and pan-European databases (e.g. ERMS, E+M, FaEu), by using the pan-European databases as a taxonomic reference to standardise concepts and spellings and to harmonise synonymy.

Provision of additional data types

Getting all vernacular names of all European main languages of a selected group of prioritised taxa, meaning those species playing a role in EU legislation on for instance nature conservation, habitat protection (Natura2000), and health care. Support translation because of multilingual portal. The guidance and provision of data standards on diverse data types when relevant within the process of data gathering in collaboration with PESI WP4.

Update the inventory of local expertise

The overview of taxonomic experts at the European or global level, ordered by taxon. WP3 provides the inventory of local and national experts and data resources. Revitalise and upgrade of the FaEu NAS data management system, identify and register local taxonomic resources and registers; include metadata profile of potential regional/local taxonomic data resources, secure widest possible access to these resources.

Support Focal Points’ activities and policy plans

Support for FPs in their organisation and functioning as national or regional clearinghouse for taxonomic data. Efforts to facilitate the acquisition of funds for regional focal points to assure a more permanent and constructive focal point participation.

Set-up and maintenance of national checklists

Support for the establishment or updating of national checklists. Part of this task follows from the results of the cross-validation effort.

Publication plan for taxonomic notes

The validation and standardisation process as well as the set-up of new national checklists will generate taxonomic information that needs to be documented in a sustainable way, e.g. new occurrence records, discussion of alternative taxonomies. One possible way to do this is to publish a series of PESI-related notes in an (online) journal.

Interoperability and integrated (PESI) web-portals

The taxonomic data in the future PESI portal (or other European or global portals) can be enriched with links to national data portals that provide distribution and other data.

Externally built databases for local expertise and resources to be integrated into PESI

• http://pesi.indexfungorum.org/