Dear SPLICE advisory board,

We wanted to share some highlights from the work on integrating DNA data in GBIF and let you know that we plan to hold one last meeting of 2026, for which you will receive a separate invitation soon.

The highlights include:

• Sequence search live on GBIF.org (news item)
• Updates to the data publisher and user agreements as well as data quality recommendations concerning Digital Sequence Information (DSI) (news item)
• Enabled the FASTA download format for occurrence downloads
• 10 projects have been selected for funding for sharing DNA reference libraries (5) or establishing or improving data sharing pipelines (5)
• Open recruitment for a contractor for molecular OTU clustering and target-gene classification services with an application deadline of 30 October 2026
• In the next couple of weeks, the SPLICE team will be attending the Global eDNA conference in Seattle, US and the International Barcode of Life conference in Bangkok, Thailand
• This week, we will announce the last open call for sharing or improving data pipelines (subscribe for news here)

We have initiated work on a citable DNA reference library catalogue, spanning multiple marker regions such as CO1, ITS and 16S. This resource will support the taxonomic reinterpretation of occurrence records that contain sequence data.

At the next advisory board meeting, we will present the preliminary work for taxonomic reinterpretation and the feedback we have received so far. We hope to get your input on how reannotation would best be implemented for publishers as well as users of GBIF data.

Kind regards

Tobias, Thomas and Cecilie

GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Universitetsparken 15 | DK-2100 Copenhagen | DENMARK

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