GBIF's voting participants have elected Dr Liam Lysaght to a second two-year term as chair of the GBIF Governing Board. The result was confirmed at the outset of the board's 31st meeting (GB31) in Vairão, Portugal, on 1 October 2024. First elected as chair in 2022, Lysaght currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Biodiversity Data Centre, host institution of the GBIF national node for Ireland.
"I'm honoured to have the renewed support of my colleagues who represent GBIF's participant countries in continuing in this important role," said Lysaght. "Our network has a unique role to play in providing evidence needed to make space for nature and reverse the tide of the global biodiversity crisis."
Lysaght has more than three decades of experience leading and managing national and global biodiversity projects, including tenures as both the GBIF head of delegation and node manager for Ireland. Having earned a PhD in biogeography from Trinity College Dublin, he previously served as trustee for the Vincent Wildlife Trust, a conservation organization focusing on mammal protection, and as a wildlife officer at The Heritage Council, a statutory advisory council to the Irish Government.
Prior his election as chair of the GBIF Governing Board, Lysaght was the 1st vice chair of the GBIF Budget Committee from 2017-2022 as well as the deputy regional representative from Europe and Central Asia on the Nodes Steering Group from 2017 to 2019.
In other business, the board approved the GBIF 2025 Work Programme and budget and heard election results for other board and committee positions:
- Governing Board 2nd Vice-chair (newly elected): André Heughebaert
- Budget Committee Chair (re-elected): Monika Huber
- Science Committee Chair (re-elected): Birgit Gemeinholzer
- Science Committee 3rd Vice-chair (newly elected): Soledad Ceccarelli
"We're very pleased to have brought GB31 to a successful close through the efforts of our Portuguese hosts and the board's approval of the 2025 work programme and budget," said Joe Miller, GBIF executive secretary. "This annual opportunity for personal interaction between Secretariat staff and board members—receiving their feedback and learning from their ideas—remains critical to our success."
GB31 highlights
Early in the agenda for the meeting's first day, newly appointed deputy director Tim Robertson introduced a pilot phase for the new Metabarcoding Data programme. This initiative reaffirms the central role of GBIF nodes in engaging and supporting communities of researchers while streamlining the delivery of DNA-derived data on biodiversity through the newly developed Metabarcoding Data Toolkit (MDT).
Other key moments included:
- an update on plans for the next round of EU funding for the Biodiversity Information for Development (BID), including renewal of the programme's regional support teams
- a one-year renewal of the "vectors" task group
- a status report on the preparation of GBIF's first sustainability baseline report
- support for the establishment of a new task force on Indigenous data governance
- announcement of the three winners of the 2024 Ebbe Nielsen Challenge and presentation of both recipients of the 2024 Graduate Researchers Awards