Resources – iBOL Europe https://iboleurope.org European node of the International Barcode of Life Thu, 27 Aug 2026 10:04:11 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 Open Barcoding for All Researchers https://iboleurope.org/open-barcoding-for-all-researchers/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:06:55 +0000 https://iboleurope.org/?p=7023 OPENBAR – Open Barcoding for All Researchers is a Biodiversity Genomics Europe plus initiative to democratise DNA barcoding across taxa, regions, and research scales through standardised solutions.
Third-generation sequencing technologies have enabled ultra-low-cost, high-throughput DNA barcoding using portable platforms such as the ONT MinION. However, technical and financial barriers still limit widespread adoption of decentralised workflows. OPENBAR will consolidate, benchmark, and expand proven protocols to democratise DNA barcoding across taxa, regions, and research scales through standardised yet flexible solutions. OPENBAR aims to develop a comprehensive, modular resource covering end-to-end workflows from DNA extraction to sequencing and bioinformatics.

For more information about OPENBAR and related initiatives, you can contact Emily Hartop (NTNU).

In this initial phase of OPENBAR, BGE+ partners are running a survey to get an overview of user needs for scaling up distributed DNA (meta) barcoding in Europe and will host the OPENBAR Forum (online) on 15 September – you can register here.

We will report on OPENBAR initiatives regularly.

OPENBAR Survey

 

OPENBAR Forum
]]> Paper: The Role of Community Science in DNA-Based Biodiversity Monitoring https://iboleurope.org/paper-the-role-of-community-science-in-dna-based-biodiversity-monitoring/ Mon, 06 Oct 2025 11:25:12 +0000 https://iboleurope.org/?p=6782 Last week, Carolina Corrales (LIB) presented the BGE paper “The Role of Community Science in DNA-Based Biodiversity Monitoring” at our community meeting.

The paper investigates how collaborations between the general public and scientists are shaped. The paper presents an overview of the complementarity between community science and DNA-based biomonitoring through examples from ongoing projects. The involvement of hobby experts is particularly crucial for building up the necessary species reference databases that enable DNA-based monitoring. Based on this overview, the authors identify some key points related to learning opportunities and participant recognition to maximise the success, impact and benefit of community participants in DNA-based monitoring.

The paper was published on 12 September 2025 on Molecular Ecology with DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70100.

Read the Paper

 

The work was supported by the Horizon Europe Framework Programme through the Biodiversity Genomics Europe (BGE) project.

Photo by Roman Kraft via Unsplash.
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