In December 2024, Norway joined OBIS to establish a new node "OBIS-GBIF Norway" affiliated with the Norwegian Participant Node in GBIF.
Read the OBIS news story and interview with members of the OBIS-GBIF Norway Node.
The journey toward establishing OBIS Norway emerged from two parallel movements. At an international level, “the partnership between GBIF and OBIS sparked the interest of several marine-oriented GBIF Nodes to strengthen ties with OBIS,” explains Dag Endresen. “This concerted global movement acted as a catalyst, encouraging Norway to join and contribute more effectively to data-driven global marine biodiversity observation efforts.” Simultaneously, there was a push from the Norwegian scientific community to join OBIS. “At publishing workshops for GBIF, researchers often asked about OBIS,” says Andreas Altenburger. “This bottom-up approach from the community echoed the top-down momentum from the institutions. On both sides, there was a clear wish to connect Norway to OBIS.”
Extracted from the interview with Andreas Altenburger, Associate Professor at the UiT the Arctic University of Norway; Dag Endressen, GBIF Node Manager, University of Oslo; Katrine Kongshavn, Head Engineer, University of Bergen; and Vanessa Pitusi, Zoological Collection Manager at the Arctic University Museum of Norway.
