| NSF Org: |
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 9, 2010 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | February 20, 2013 |
| Award Number: | 0960913 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Peter McCartney
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2010 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,647,003.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,858,718.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2011 = $417,128.00 FY 2012 = $580,271.00 FY 2013 = $59,957.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2385 IRVING HILL RD LAWRENCE KS US 66045-7563 (785)864-3441 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
2385 IRVING HILL RD LAWRENCE KS US 66045-7563 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
ADVANCES IN BIO INFORMATICS, Digitization, Cross-BIO Activities |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001112DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001314DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
The University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc. is awarded a grant for continued development and maintenance of the Specify software for managing biological collections (http://www.specifysoftware.org) . This award provides for continued maintenance and support of the Specify version 6 software, completion and refinement of essential functionality, and for development of a long-term sustainability plan for the software. The Specify Software Project supports biological collections computing with robust, professionally-engineered specimen data management software. Specify is a layered software platform designed for integration with internet services, and is extendible through plug-ins. Specify is written in Java and runs identically on the three common desktop environments: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It is open source licensed and is free for downloading. Specify is the most widely used computing platform in U.S. biodiversity research centers and museums. It is currently the primary, production database system for 189 U.S. collections located at 90 institutions. International interest is also high with 69 collections at 41 institutions using it to computerize their holdings information. During the previous four-year NSF award period, Specify adoption increased an average of 16% per year and it has had a similar growth rate since 1998 when NSF began funding the project.
Mobilizing species information from biological collections to the Internet remains a large challenge, and requires software, software support and innovative network services for collection data workflows. The taxonomic and geographic information associated with museum voucher specimens is an international treasure of data documenting the identity and distribution of life on earth. In addition to their primary role in supporting systematics and ecological research, this species occurrence data is extremely useful for analyzing and predicting biological impacts caused by global scale climate change, species invasions, and other kinds of large-scale environmental perturbation. This project is part of a 10-year effort to digitize and mobilize the scientific information associated with biological specimens held in U.S. research collections. The images and digitized data from this project will be integrated into the online national resource as outlined in the community strategic plan available at http://digbiocol.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/digistratplanfinaldraft.pdf.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Specify Software Project produces and supports research data management software for biological museums and biodiversity sample repositories. The goal of the project is to facilitate the mobilization, integration and analysis of information derived from biodiversity specimens in order to include that data for broader research in the fields of biogeography, ecology, evolution, and environmental analyses and modelling of the biological impacts of climate change.
Over 350 biodiversity collections use Specify Software to digitize, process and publish the information associated with their field samples and specimens. Those data are subsequently published to U.S. and international data warehouses such as iDigBio at the University of Florida, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in Copenhagen. From those centralized facilities, through public web pages, researchers and students from around the world access the aggregated plant and animal species occurrence and distribution information for research, conservation and educational uses.
During the course of the award, the Specify Project released numerous innovative and maintenance updates to its software platforms. All Specify Software is free, licensed as open source, and available for downloading (http://www.specifysoftware.org). Technical and helpdesk support as well as assistance with legacy data migration and software customization, is available for U.S. biodiversity research collections. Specify Software is a community-supported software platform for hundreds of research collections for specimen data digitization and biological collections curation.
The Project also made several strategic technology moves centered on moving biological collections computing from local relational database platforms, to cloud-based data management using hosted services, with access through the web browser anywhere in the world. With the migration of Specify to the cloud, more of the thousands of U.S. biological research collections will be able to mobilize collections information amassed from over 250 years of earth survey and biological inventory, and engage in a national collections computing strategy for broader, more integrative and inclusive earth science research computing.
Specify Software leverages the historical and monumental investment museum researchers have made in planetary survey and inventory by creating the research data streams which are the source of information for modelling, analysis, and planning about the future of earth’s biologically-diverse natural systems.
Last Modified: 09/30/2016
Modified by: James H Beach
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