Registration and abstract submission for the Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference will open on January 15, 2017. 

The rapid mobilization of digitized biodiversity data, led largely in the United States by the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program, has resulted in a substantial increase in available data for research and related activities. This conference will encompass the uses of digitized data across all biodiversity disciplines, with special emphasis on digitized specimen data and the potential for “big data” analytics in organismal biology. This conference will provide an important opportunity to explore digital data tools, techniques, discoveries, and outcomes across the biodiversity sciences.

Oral presentations and posters will emphasize the use of digital data for biodiversity research, inclusive of the neontological and paleontological domains. Emphases might include:

• published or publishable biodiversity research that depends on digital datasets,
• systematics and the use of digital data,
• ongoing research projects that derive from and use digital datasets,
• gaps and deficiencies in currently available digital data that hinder effective use,
• user critiques of digital data aggregators and providers,
• integrated digitization/data use/research pipelines,
• standards and practices for depositing and documenting open access digital datasets,
• the role and relevance of “Big Data” in biodiversity research,
• use of digitized biodiversity data within the ecological sciences,
• the relative importance of digital data derived from specimens vs. observations,
• managing digital biodiversity data in support of research pipelines, and
• analyzing and visualizing biodiversity digital data.

Registration and abstract submission for the Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference will open 15 January 2017. 
The registration fee for non-student professionals is $50.00. Student registration is $20.00. A list of hotels at various prices will also be provided at the time registration opens. The deadline for abstracts (with completed registration) will be 15 April. The deadline for registration will be 15 May. The conference is capped at 200 participants.

The conference is presented by iDigBio, the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, and the University of Michigan Herbarium and will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 5-6, 2017.

For further information or to ensure that you are on the email list, please contact Gil Nelson at iDigBio (gnelson(at)bio.fsu.edu).