BEXIS++

Description

The Heinz-Nixdorf Endowed Chair for Practical Computer Science at the Friedrich-Schiller-University (FSU) of Jena, Germany is working with the Institute of Ecology (FSU), the Institute for Geography (FSU), the University Data Center (FSU) and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry for the further development of the established Biodiversity-Exploratories Information System (BExIS). Furthermore, the project will focus on strategic work such as concepts and method development to foster long-term data preservation in biodiversity research at the Friedrich-Schiller-University. Ideally, the further development of the existing BExIS software will serve three purposes:

• Technical Goals

The core of the BExIS software will be revised to increase the usability in terms of decoupling different software components due to modularization, support of easy integration of new software features with limited customization requirements and additionally encourage multi-platform support (scalability).

• Organizational Goals

This goal aims to work on strategies to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for a coherent and sustainable scientific data management as a part of the basic IT infrastructure at FSU Jena. In detail, the project aims to develop a common persistence layer for long-term data preservation. As a first-use case for this type of common IT infrastructure, scientific data related to biodiversity research projects will be taken into account. In the future, the CoE might play an interdisciplinary key role in matters of consulting on data publication or publication of data as supplements to publications, across different domains.

• Curricular Goals

The third main goal of the BExIS++ project will focus on empirical curriculum development for students and young researchers related to  Biology and Ecology. In addition, to the theoretical elaboration of curriculum development, technical developments belong to the main goal as well. It’s intended to set up a mobile infrastructure to support field measurements and its linkage to the central Knowledge Management System BExIS.