DNAbinE Meeting 2007

EDIT, the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy, organized a meeting on DNA barcoding in Europe. Researchers from EDIT and non-EDIT organizations and stakeholders were invited to join in. The meeting was held in Leiden, 3 – 5 Oct 2007.

The programme of the meeting consisted of discussion sessions with invited lectures, sessions with contributed presentations and a poster session. The discussion sessions continue after this meeting in funding groups.

The venue of the meeting was Naturalis, the National Museum for Natural History in Leiden, The Netherlands.

Rationale

DNA barcoding, the fast digital approach to species identification, has now taken off in many parts of the world and presents a great opportunity for funding taxonomic research. EDIT, the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy, organized a conference on DNA barcoding and other DNA sequence-based species identification systems. The main goals of the meeting were to

• provide a platform where European researchers can interact
• present commercial and scientific applications of DNA-based identification systems
• explore funding options, particularly with a view to the 7th European Framework
• constitute funding groups on European aspects of DNA barcoding
  

Funding groups

In Europe, the DNA barcoding scene is somewhat patchy and disparate. To streamline efforts in for example DNA banking, linking and compatibility of databases, coordinating work on specific organism groups, etc., we propose to adopt the CBOL working group model.

In this meeting, we offered the opportunity to initiate such working groups which could then persist after the meeting. As a result, the ECBL initiative came into life.

Researchers looking for partners in in joint proposals can contact Ursula Eberhardt at CBS (barcodeATcbs.knaw.nl).

More information

Programme DNA Barcoding in Europe
Meeting report DNA Barcoding in Europe