Please note, applications for the 2024 ALA Australian Biodiversity Data Mobilisation Program have now closed.

The ALA Australian Biodiversity Data Mobilisation Program is a grant program managed by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) designed to improve the scientific understanding of Australia’s rare and remarkable biodiversity. The 2024 program provides grants of either up to AUD $20,000 or AUD $50,000, to support the digitisation of existing biodiversity data and provide it to the ALA.

This program supports Australian museums, biological collections, herbaria, government and non-government organisations, and research teams to digitise data, making them accessible and available through the ALA, and internationally through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

This year, we will also be opening applications for a Biosecurity Stream within the ALA Australian Biodiversity Data Mobilisation Program, focused on mobilising biosecurity and invasive species data in Australia.

Eligibility

Applicants must be associated with an Australian Institution to be eligible for the program.

Existing ALA partnership projects that already receive ALA or National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) financial support are ineligible for this program.

Applicants must agree to provide the data to the ALA in Darwin Core Standard under a Creative Commons licence, made open and accessible through the ALA if successful.

Program Details

Funding amounts

There are two funding amounts on offer through the 2024 program:

  • small grants up to AUD $20,000
  • large grants up to AUD $50,000

What data are in scope for the program?

  • Data must be in the form of Australian species occurrence records
  • The program cannot support new expeditions or field programs but should focus on mobilising existing data, or biological specimens that require digitisation
  • Data mobilisation efforts should align with national priorities
  • See our FAQ’s page for further information.

What can I use the funding for?

Funding can be used to support data mobilisation and/or infrastructure investments.

Data mobilisation investment could include:

  • Staff time to digitise specimens in biological collections including scanning
  • Conversion of existing analogue data, such as in field notes into the Darwin Core Standard for provision to the ALA.

Infrastructure investment could include:

  • Purchasing digital imaging equipment to create digital data from physical specimen records. For example, camera equipment to photograph biological collections, and scanners to copy specimen labels.

Biosecurity Stream

The Biosecurity Data Mobilisation stream is designed to improve the findability and accessibility of biosecurity and invasive species data in Australia. Invasive species data is underrepresented in the ALA, comprising less than 2% of occurrence records.  This funding stream (supported by the CSIRO Catalysing Australia’s Biosecurity initiative) is aimed at assisting biosecurity and invasive species data holders to digitise and mobilise collections and occurrence data for sharing via the ALA.

To participate in the Biosecurity Stream of funding the contract must be signed, and first invoice submitted by June 21st 2024.

What biosecurity data are in scope for this funding stream?

While the Biosecurity Stream is open to datasets concerned with alien species in general, the focus is invasive species, species that have not yet invaded or are currently invading Australia. The particular focus is to enable researchers and authorities to rapidly identify specimens needed for diagnostic and genetic work or, where the species occurs in Australia, to better understand the distribution and spatial dynamics of invasive species. This data may include:

  • Data from Australian biosecurity collections and/or comprising predominantly invasive species occurrences (this data can comprise animals, plants, fungi, protists or viruses).
  • Data of species of environmental biosecurity concern or interest in Australia.
  • Data that significantly increases the number or quality of invasive species occurrence records in the ALA.
  • Sensitive invasive species data than can be adequately generalised for publication using the ALA’s sensitive data protocol.

Selection process

An independent review panel chaired by Ecologist, and Head of Science at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Dr Kirsti Abbott will select the successful grant recipients. The panel will consist of members from The Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and a representative from the ALA.

Timeline

Applications for the 2024 round of the ALA Australian Data Mobilisation Program closed on Friday 26th April 2024.

The successful applicants will have one year upon receiving funding to complete their projects and deliver data to the ALA in Darwin Core Standard.

Contracting

Successful applications will be expected to enter into a formal agreement with CSIRO to receive funding. See examples here.

Projects will be contracted to institutions, not to individuals.

More information

  • If you have any questions regarding the program contact outreach@ala.org.au.
  • See the FAQ’s section.
  • Read more about the 2022 and 2023 successful projects on the ALA Blog.

To assist applicants with preparing their submissions, we are providing access to a non-editable Excel sheet containing the questions asked of applicants before filling in the application form.

Please note that downloading and filling in these Excel files offline will not automatically submit your application. These files are solely for assisting applicants with preparing their applications. You must still fill in and submit your application through our online form.

Submit your application

Applications for the 2024 ALA Australian Biodiversity Data Mobilisation Program have now closed.

Past funded projects:

2022:

  • New South Wales Department of Primary Industries – mobilising plant pest and disease data from the NSW Biosecurity Collections (~600,000 records).
  • South Australia Museum – mobilising the Sout Australia Museum’s Australian Biological Tissues Collection of 39 donated frozen tissue collections of Australian freshwater fishes (around 90% of all known species and ~46,000 records).
  • Queensland Museum Network – mobilising and enhancing data from the Cribb Australian Fish Trematode Collection (>20,000 records of >1,000 fish species).
  • Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery – mobilising wildlife molecular and tissue data (> 8,500 sample vials and 1,650 formalin-fixed specimens in the histology collection).
  • Edith Cowan University – mobilising plant and fungi data from the Robert Brown Herbarium.
  • Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority – mobilising data in the Kings Park and Botanic Garden Herbarium collection (18,200 specimens).

2023:

  • National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria – mobilising more than 5,000 specimen-based occurrence data records from Australian macroalgae.
  • Western Australian Museum with Kit Prendergast – mobilising thousands of native bee data records from physical specimens collected southwestern WA, representing more than 200 bee species.
  • Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, South Australia – making >30,000 bryophyte and >6,000 lichen records available to the ALA through digitisation of physical collection labels.
  • D’Estrees Entomology and Science Services – delivery of 7,000 -10,000 insect occurrence records from Kangaroo Island, focused on underrepresented taxa.
  • Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery – mobilising more than 15,000 invertebrate species records representing Tasmanian spiders, echinoderms, cnidarians and annelids.