Strengthening Taxonomic capacity and Biodiversity Information in Education

What this was about

Mergen described how taxonomy and biodiversity informatics are under-represented in education. Taxonomy content is being hidden from course titles, fieldwork is becoming optional, and dedicated biodiversity informatics degrees are rare or have disappeared. She presented outcomes of the EU TETTRIs project (an MoU among six partners and pilot courses) and its successor, TETTRIs Next Level (started this September, running to 2030), which plans a training academy and European certification. She called for reviving TDWG's dormant Biodiversity Informatics Curriculum interest group to inventory training, safeguard materials and describe courses, possibly reusing schema.org Course markup.

Why it matters. Standards and infrastructures depend on people trained to use and maintain them. Losing courses and retiring experts risks breaking knowledge transfer just as AI makes structured data more important.

In the room

• The public and even biology students often cannot name common local species; Mergen cited UK and German studies (figures partly garbled by ASR).
• Identification apps are useful but create dependence on technology.
• TETTRIs found taxonomy and nomenclature often remain in courses but are hidden from titles and descriptions to avoid deterring students. Fieldwork is increasingly optional.
• TETTRIs produced an MoU signed by six partners on taxonomic and biodiversity informatics training. TETTRIs Next Level (started this September, runs to 2030) aims for an academy, European certification, 'taxonomists for the future' pilots and science-policy training.
• Biodiversity informatics is rarely a degree topic; the Sorbonne/MNHN master (Régine Vignes Lebbe, Elie Saliba) disappeared after staff moved on. Most practitioners trained on the job.
• Relations between morphological taxonomy and molecular communities have improved through voucher linking, barcoding, eDNA and TDWG standards.
• AI master's programmes are proliferating; biodiversity informatics can use AI to gain curriculum space and funding, since TDWG standards make data AI-ready.

Notable moments