How does open data support biodiversity research and policy development?

Climate change is accelerating the decline of global biodiversity, leading to the loss of species and increased prevalence of diseases. This poses serious threats to ecosystems, agriculture, and human health. Researchers worldwide are trying to find solutions for these challenges but to do this, they need vast amounts of data and robust analysis tools.

In advance of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16), you can read about our projects, tools, and resources that support global biodiversity research.

EMBL-EBI supports global biodiversity research by:?

• Making biological data openly available to the scientific community
• Developing metadata standards to ensure data are consistent and comparable, making them easier to reuse
• Delivering bioinformatics training for biodiversity research

Find out more about our ongoing projects, meet our experts and access practical bioinformatics training on our new dedicated landing page.

Data resources for biodiversity research?

Our data resources enable scientists to study evolutionary processes, ecosystem health and to gain insights to help inform conservation strategies.

Tools like the Biodiversity Portal and Ensembl Rapid Release provide quick access to new genome sequences. MGnify offers insights into microbial communities and their role in ecosystem function. UniProt and PDBe allow scientists to explore the structure and function of proteins across species. Also many of our resources support projects like the Earth BioGenome Project and Darwin Tree of Life to help drive global biodiversity research.

The Biodiversity Portal

The Biodiversity Portal is EMBL’s hub for biodiversity genomic sequencing data. It acts as a user-friendly platform to explore genomic information from global biodiversity initiatives, aiding in conservation and biodiversity efforts worldwide.

The portal supports research by offering features including:

• A sequencing status tracker to monitor the sequencing progress of different species
• Flexible search options allowing users to search by a species' common names or Latin names
• Easy access to project-specific portals such as the Earth BioGenome Project data portal
• Regular updates to provide the most current information

Solutions for crop protection??

EMBL-EBI’s Agri-Tech Partnership addresses global food security challenges by collaborating with industry and academic partners. By optimising the usability and value of publicly available biological data, the partnership aims to address critical agricultural issues and enhance sustainable farming practices.

Companies and other organisations can join the partnership and work with us to:

• Explore use cases and determine which datasets to prioritise
• Identify gaps in existing public data and tools
• Collaborate on projects to close gaps or to generate new data

Project spotlight: Harnessing marine microbes to promote a circular bioeconomy

The BlueRemediomics project is developing innovative tools to catalogue marine microbiome data to support a sustainable blue economy. Using expertise from EMBL-EBI’s MGnify team, the project aims to reduce waste, reuse natural products, and improve aquaculture practices, helping to promote a circular bioeconomy.

Key goals of the BlueRemediomics project include:

• Supporting the development of industrial processes to minimise waste
• Discovery of marine-derived products for biotech applications, such as new medicines and cosmeceuticals
• Develop sustainable aquaculture practices by understanding marine microbial roles in ecosystem health
• Improve access, protection and sharing of marine genetic resources

"Marine microbes have evolved to exploit and reuse both natural and artificial resources that they encounter in their relatively nutrient-poor environment. This can be as simple as a single enzyme, or involve a series of processes involving different species. The BlueRemediomics project will exploit existing data to help identify such processes and let us derive new biobased solutions for reducing waste or for bioremediation."

Not focused on biodiversity? Visit our website to discover other areas of our work including artificial intelligence and explore our collection of data resources available to support your research.