Applications are open for Ebbe Nielsen Challenge 2021. The 2021 Ebbe Nielsen Challenge has opened with the aim of recognizing innovative entries that leverage biodiversity data and tools from the GBIF network to advance open science. Furthermore, an expert jury will judge entries on their openness and repeatability, relevance and novelty and present a selected pool of winners with a total of up to €20,000 in prizes.

Between 20 January and 2 August 2021, individuals and teams can prepare tools and techniques that improve the access, usefulness and quality of

Eligibility

Moreover, the Challenge is open to individuals, teams of individuals, companies and their employees, and governmental agencies and their employees. However, Ebbe Nielsen Challenge 2021 is not open to

• Current staff members at the GBIF Secretariat
• Individuals currently contracting directly with the GBIF Secretariat
• Members of the GBIF Science Committee
• Heads of Delegation to GBIF

Submission requirements

Entrants for Ebbe Nielsen Challenge 2021 must complete the entry form, which provides information about the entry, including:

• Submission name/title
• Team member(s) names and affiliations
• Abstract and rationale
• Operating instructions
• Link to visuals (prototype, demo, video, screenshots, slides, etc.)
• Link(s) to submission materials on any appropriate website or repository

What should I create?

The 2021 Ebbe Nielsen Challenge is deliberately open-ended, so entrants have a broad remit for creating tools and techniques that advance in open science and improve the access, utility or quality of GBIF-mediated data. Furthermore, challenge submissions may be new applications, visualization methods, workflows or analyses, or they build on and extend existing tools and features.

Basically, it is expected that successful entries provide practical, pragmatic solutions for the GBIF network while advancing biodiversity informatics and biodiversity data management in relation to the GBIF mission and strategic plan.

Criteria

A panel of expert judges from relevant scientific, informatics and technology domains will evaluate submissions based on the following criteria:

• Openness and repeatability: Are the constituent elements of the submission, like code and content, freely available and transparent? Are they appropriately licensed?
• Applicability: Does the submission have sufficient relevance and scope that the communities GBIF support can use or build it?
• Novelty Has a significant portion of the submission been developed specifically for the challenge? Submissions based largely or entirely on previously published work are not deemed to be eligible entries.