The diversity of our flora and fauna is represented in biodiversity databases. Unfortunately, these databases are often heterogeneous, digitally inaccessible and insufficiently interconnected, as the status report by the UN organization Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) revealed. In times of a dramatic global decline in biodiversity as a result of the same report, Austrian universities also see a need for action here.
ATIV-Biodat aims to develop and establish a coordinated input and networking platform for important biological data collections and thus bridge the gap between universities and (inter)national databases. Classical and molecular biodiversity data are to be recorded more efficiently, bundled and digitally networked, thus guaranteeing wider availability and accessibility.