Charlotte Johns, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Email: [email protected]  

 

A workshop dedicated to sustainable business models was held during the 5th pro-iBiosphere project meeting on the 11th and 12th of February 2014, at the Museum für Naturkunde (MfN) in Berlin, Germany.  It was attended by consortium members and eight external participants with experience in strategic business and finance.

 

The workshop was planned to split into 4 sessions. The first session looked to agree the scope of a future "iBiosphere", to decide which products and services will be included as part of the Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System (OBKMS). This session was followed by a number of talks given by the external participants, who shared their experience on the sustainability of their projects.  Session three looked at enabling factors contributing towards the OBKMS, including open access, data and technology and communication. The final session concentrated upon sustainability and governance and how the management of iBiosphere should be structured.

 

The main outcome of the workshop was agreement on a list of core products and services which the OBKMS will provide, and an agreement on the core functionality. Information gathered through this milestone also helped to create the draft sustainability model for the OBKMS, which highlights gaps in our present knowledge and helps to decide upon future work which needs to be completed. These workshop outcomes, along with suggestions as to how the OBKMS will be governed and a list of challenges and solutions for a number of enabling functions, can be found within D6.4.2 the ‘Draft Sustainability Report’. The information collected through the workshop will also aid future reports including D6.1.2 ‘Report on Costs’, D6.4.3 ‘Summary of model evaluations’ and D6.4.4 ‘Sustainability recommendations’, to be made available here.

 

We would like to again thank all the participants for the success of the workshop and who contributed valuable information that will help shape our future pro-iBiosphere sustainability deliverables.