
The ISBI department focuses on international collaboration to promote the development of biodiversity research infrastructures. We bring together and align natural history institutions and international initiatives on biodiversity infrastructures and data sharing related to natural history collections.
Facilitating international collaborationfor biodiversity
Naturalis' ISBI department was established in direct response to the challenges and opportunities presented by the international convergence of mass digitisation, open science, and data and research infrastructures. ISBI facilitates international, national and institutional collaboration between data, science, and biodiversity management infrastructures, and coordinates and aligns (inter)nationally funded initiatives and activities. Thereby, we hope to enable scientists, policymakers and other domain experts across organisations, countries, infrastructures and disciplines to seamlessly produce, publish and re-use integrated mass-scale biological and geological data driving the innovation needed to address today's urgent environmental and anthropogenic challenges.
Othercollaborations
ISBI also leads and impartially engages with other international projects, initiatives, and partnerships to promote and facilitate international cooperation between European natural science institutions.
ISBI attempts to achieve synergy and cost-efficient cooperation between natural science institutions in Europe and the major international biodiversity data sharing initiatives. Within Naturalis, the ISBI department initiates and strengthens connections between international initiatives and Naturalis and ensures these developments are embedded within Naturalis' operational framework to optimize collaboration and stay abreast of emerging issues and technologies. Some of our collaborators include:
Netherlands Biodiversity Information Facility (NLBIF)
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)


Who we are
ISBI Department
Wouter Addink
Coordinator Research Data and E-infrastructures
Development of (inter)national projects on biodiversity e-infrastructures. Coordinates all things technical in ISBI and is a fluent speaker of acronyms.
Eva Alonso
ISBI Department Head, Senior Project Manager and DiSSCo Prepare Project Manager
Oversees the department and coordinates a cluster of activities to secure synergy between different ISBI programme projects and relevant projects and development at institutional, national and international levels.
Gabriela Dankova
Community development manager (BIOSCAN Europe)
Coordinates the development and establishment of the BIOSCAN Europe network.
Vania Leonardo Ferreira
Project Assistant
Responsible for administrative and financial support for the department and project initiatives (DiSSCo, MOBILISE).
Julian Lopez Gordillo
FAIR Data Specialist
Responsible for ensuring that the data layer of the Biodiversity Digital Twin (BioDT) is FAIR enough: creating frameworks, guidelines and training materials for researchers, analysing trends in biodiversity modelling and digital twinning.
Sharif Islam
DiSSCo Data Architect
Responsible for the design of the data architecture and associated services.
Niki Kyriakopoulou
Scientific Data Specialist
Responsible for the prediction, validation and visualisation of Biodiversity data linkages as part of the BiCIKL (Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library) project, and to ensure this work is aligned with DiSSCo's data infrastructure development.
Tina Loo
Project Officer, Biodiversity Data
Responsible for biodiversity data and data policy related tasks with respect to European funded projects and DiSSCo development priorities.
Andres Rivera Quiroz
Project Manager Assistant/ Project Administrator (Biodiversity Genomics Europe)
Responsible for the administration, logistics, and management assistant of the BGE (Biodiversity Genomics Europe) project. Also supporting in-house initiatives for collaboration between different sectors of Naturalis (Infrastructure, Research and Collections).
Niels Raes
NLBIF Node Manager, Senior Project Leader Internationalization, and DiSSCo-NL National Node Manager
Coordinates a stream to secure synergy between different ISBI programme projects, and relevant projects and developments at institutional and (inter)national levels.
Max Schoettler
Programmer
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Roya Shokoohi
Senior Project Manager (Biodiversity Genomics Europe)
Senior Project Manager for BGE. Responsible for the daily management and implementation of BGE activities on time and according to the requirements of the European Commission.
ISBI Associates
José Alonso
Communications and Outreach Officer (Communications)
Coordinates the development and implementation of DiSSCo's communications strategies and initiatives. Responsible for making sure that DiSSCo not only informs but also communicates its message.
Tom Dijkema
Programmer (Applications Development and Management)
Develops software for DiSSCo's end-users to interact with the digital infrastructure. Also involved in the revival of the GeoCASe portal (Geoscience Collections Access Service).
Dimitris Koureas
Naturalis Managing Director for Digital & Chief Information Officer, Executive Director DiSSCo Research Infrastructure
Sam Leeflang
Lead Programmer (Applications Development and Management)
Responsible for developing DiSSCo's core services and keeping them alive and kicking.
Soulaine Theocharides
Software Developer (Applications Development and Management)
Develops software for the DiSSCo and BiCIKL projects. Implementing an identifier system to allow the two projects to interoperate with each other and with other diverse biodiversity initiatives.
Ni Yan
Business Developer
Developing European project services within Naturalis by building capacity within the organisation and engaging key external actors, stakeholders and networks.