The next session will focus on the Digital Catalogue of Biodiversity of Poland and the Polish Biodiversity Information Network.

When: Thursday 28 May 2026, 15:00 – 16:00 EEST (14:00 – 15:00 CEST).
Lecturer: Prof. Michal Grabowski (University of Lodz, Polish Barcode of Life)
Language: English
Access: on Zoom via this link.

The first session dived into GBIF, exploring why data publishing matters and how it benefits the global research community.

When: Thursday 23 April 2026, 15:00 – 16:00 EEST (14:00 – 15:00 CEST).
Lecturer: Dr Salza Palpurina (National Museum of Natural History of Sofia; GBIF Regional Support Team)
Language: English
Access: on Zoom via this link.

The webinar series will continue with sessions in May and September. More info is available on BgBOL’s website.

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.

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