CESP 2023 project with Uzbekistan

[dagendresen]

Exploring developing a CESP project together with the new node in Uzbekistan

Call for proposals for the 2023 Capacity Enhancement Support Programme -- Deadline 2023-03-14
Some examples of previous CESP mentoring projects: Tajikistan & Norway, (+) Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland & Estonia, (+) Armenia & France, (+) Cameroon, Benin & France, (+) South Sudan & Kenya, (+) Zimbabwe & Spain

[dagendresen]

CESP2022-001 planned here #84

[rukayaj]

Some useful information/links:

• Capacity self assessment form - they strongly advise you to do this before applying so you can focus your grant application properly: https://www.gbif.org/tool/6Y2SqK8XokHUqIFUn6TLxX/online-capacity-self-assessment-tool-for-national-biodiversity-information-facilities
• It may be possible to subcontract Max, Natalya and Oleg as Russian speakers to help with the training - GBIF will clarify if this is permitted, at the time in the meeting they were not sure what was allowed.
• Useful information for GBIF Grant applicants: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6800813/video/790721200
• Introduction to the GBIF Grants Portal: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6800813/video/374670660
• Identifying capacity needs: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6800813/video/395712992

[dagendresen]

Update from Farkhod, GBIF UZB:

• GBIF Uzbekistan has confirmed access to an institutional bank account that can accept euros.
• For Russian language support invited Oleg as a possible project partner (GBIF Belarus). And Natalya and Maxim as subcontractors. (GBIF CESP secretariat has confirmed no sanctions from GBIF on Belarus and that subcontracting Russian nationals outside of Russia will be ok regarding the CESP call).

Questions from Farkhod, GBIF UZB:

• when filling out the data for the full proposal of the CESP grant, especially part of the "Activities" section. Because, when I saw Tajikistan's last year's project's pdf version, there were some words that mentioned BRAHMS collection management systems. Could you please tell us about the BRAHMS collection management systems? Should we set up a data publication workflow in BRAHMS?
• could you please tell me whether we should upload our records through the ECA cloud IPT or is it possible to open a new IPT for Uzbekistan without uploading via the ECA cloud IPT?
• we could not continue because we don't have any kind of license from the following: Public Domain (CC0 1.0, technically a waiver); Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0); Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0). Please, could you inform us what we should do?

[rukayaj]

Could you please tell us about the BRAHMS collection management systems? Should we set up a data publication workflow in BRAHMS?

BRAHMS is a herbarium collection management system built and maintained by someone in the UK. I would not advise you to use it because it has been very difficult to maintain and update in Tajikistan. I think in your presentation at the TJ workshop last year you said you were using another collection management system in your herbarium, but I can't remember which one this was. Can you remind me? In fact it would be great if you could email me your presentation again so I can refresh my memory - if you still have it?

And also, could you please tell me whether we should upload our records through the ECA cloud IPT or is it possible to open a new IPT for Uzbekistan without uploading via the ECA cloud IPT?

We can either open up a new IPT for you or you could use the ECA one. If you will have lots of data publishers and datasets it is probably better for us to host a new IPT for you.

The ECA provided us with a login and password to upload, but we could not continue because we don't have any kind of license from the following: Public Domain (CC0 1.0, technically a waiver); Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0); Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0).

When you publish your data, you have to choose a license type so that people who download your data know how they are allowed to use it. So for example, the "Type Collection of the National Herbarium of Uzbekistan (TASH)" dataset (https://www.gbif.org/dataset/0c1237c3-be8c-498b-bb2d-d5cf3c930dec) is published using CC-BY 4.0. It just means you have to choose one of the above license types, and it is most normal to choose CC-BY 4.0. I would not worry about this too much, but you can read more about what the different license types mean here:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ru
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.ru
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.ru

[dagendresen]

using another collection management system in your herbarium

I suspect that the National Herbarium of Uzbekistan (TASH) and other collections in UZB might be using EarthCape as their CMS. Apropos, maybe we could also consider including Evgeniy Meyke (and EarthCape) in the CESP project? Evgeniy is originally from Uzbekistan (EarthCape is his company based in Finland).

[dagendresen]

Back in 2017, they created a database Farkhod named FLORUZ here, see slide 19: http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.30679.52644

[rukayaj]

From Farkhod:

Until now, we uploaded our records via the EarthCape-hosted IPT, but we only sent our data to Natalya and Yevgeny Meika; we don't know how they uploaded them. And I am sending to you my last year's presentation.
And also, I want to inform you that there are a huge number of specimens in our National Herbarium of Uzbekistan (TASH). There are more than 1.5 million plant specimens, which are common in Central Asia and have been collected since 1831. We plan to publish another 300,000 data records that have already been digitized. That is why we really need our own Uzbek IPT cloud for uploading our records.
Could you please assist us in setting our own IPT for this? And could you teach us when and how we can open it? Could we open the Uzbek IPT nowadays, or should we wait for responses from the CESP grant before opening it?

[dagendresen]

Sound like they need an IPT right away :-) Maybe it is possible to set one up for Farkhod soon? Assuming it is not much extra work for you?

[rukayaj]

The panel welcomed this proposal submitted by the new GBIF Participant Node in Uzbekistan which focuses on establishing a node in a new Participant country.

During the review of the locations and affiliated organizations of the project partners, it was noted that these include non-GBIF Participants. The panel kindly reminds the project team that any expenses related to non-GBIF Participants must be covered by cofunding and not charged to the CESP budget. Also, in accordance with the GBIF Secretariat rules (https://www.gbif.org/news/1xmveb5p60hAKyi1QeoYlJ/gbifs-response-to-the-war-in-ukraine), no contracts that involve financial transactions with Russian institutions are allowed. In the context of the CESP programme, ‘financial transactions with Russian institutions’ would include any use of the grant funds to support the work of individuals with active employment contracts involving salaried positions with a Russian institution. Grant funds may be used to support travel, accommodation or other associated expenses of such individuals. CESP funds cannot be spent inside Russia.

In the proposal, please update the GBIF Participant Represented to read ‘Uzbekistan’ (not name of applicant). Please list activities in chronological order.

Due to incompatibility issues with MSWord, please provide all partner written confirmations in PDF format. Please review the partner letters provided with your full proposal to be sure they cover the necessary information, including stating the partners’ involvement and specific roles in the project as detailed in the proposal. Please ensure the details of the partner role in the proposal and letters align.

Another project proposal with similar geographic and thematic scope, and some overlapping partners, has been invited to submit a full proposal. It is unlikely that the CESP programme will fund multiple projects with such similarities in scope and partners, and these proposals may therefore be in competition during the full proposal selection.

The panel believes that these projects could benefit from collaborating in the preparation of a combined full proposal. CESP offers to facilitate contact with the other project team upon request. Please contact CESP@gbif.org if you wish to be put in contact with the other project team to discuss possible collaboration.

The project team is reminded that it will be a competitive second round of evaluation of full proposals. Due consideration should be given therefore to value for money and providing clear justifications for the budget.

In developing the proposal, the panel recommends:

Considering the suggestion to merge the project with the other related project as mentioned above. We will accept substantial changes to the scope, partnership, deliverables, and other aspects described in the concept note to reflect a merged consortium.
Ensuring any non-GBIF Participants costs are cofunded and not charged to CESP budget.

[rukayaj]

From the last feedback:

... no contracts that involve financial transactions with Russian institutions are allowed. In the context of the CESP programme, ‘financial transactions with Russian institutions’ would include any use of the grant funds to support the work of individuals with active employment contracts involving salaried positions with a Russian institution. Grant funds may be used to support travel, accommodation or other associated expenses of such individuals. CESP funds cannot be spent inside Russia.

Natalya Ivanova:

'Maxim now has a half-time job at the Karaganda University named after Academician E.A. Buketov (Kazakhstan) (Karaganda Buketov University). In addition, until June, he works in Russia at the Institute for Global Climate (Moscow) and until August at the Institute for Mathematical Problems of Biology (Pushchino, Russia). I have a job only in Russia, at the Institute of Mathematical Problems in Biology. So I, apparently, will have to be excluded from the project.'

There is also what GBIF said previously:

(GBIF CESP secretariat has confirmed no sanctions from GBIF on Belarus and that subcontracting Russian nationals outside of Russia will be ok regarding the CESP call)

I think they are saying that Max & Natalya can be supported with travel + accomodation and other expenses, but not paid a salary?

[dagendresen]

I believe that all Russians employed (still maintaining some employment) in Russia (receiving salary/money from the Russian Federation) would be included in the sanctions. But can try to find out (at the GBIF ECA meeting in mid-May).

[rukayaj]

@dagendresen did you find out anything about the Russian employment conditions?

[dagendresen]

My understanding is that funds cannot be transferred to anybody employed in state institutions in Russia - even if only maintaining a minor part-time state employment in Moscow. The actual CESP funds can also not be used for salary for non-member countries. The sanctions do not include Belarus. However, more detailed answers might need to be asked to the GBIF secretariat?

[rukayaj]

Merged proposal with Tajikistan following feedback from the committee. The new proposal has been submitted.

[aliyevakumush77]

Thank you so much for your support

[rukayaj]

This project was also successful 🥳

We are pleased to inform you that the project GBIF in Central Asia: new aspects of development , with the assigned Project ID CESP2023-007, has been selected for funding and in the course of the evaluation process the following feedback has been provided:

• The panel welcomed this proposal submitted by the new GBIF Participant Node in Uzbekistan which focuses on establishing a node in a new Participant country and starting data mobilization in Uzbekistan.
• The panel considers the involvement of GBIF Tajikistan beneficial to the project and recommends that the project team includes Tajikistan in as many activities as possible to share their experiences from their recent CESP project, and exchange with the project mentors on issues relating to their node development.
• The panel recommends the project team to consider how the project can help with building engagement and national support to encourage the move to Voting Participation and support for the node beyond the project’s end.
• The panel also recommends the project team to review and consider the response provided to the Hosted Portal question in the proposal.
• Please submit an application as soon as possible if you intend to make use of this opportunity.
• Please see here for further information: https://www.gbif.org/hosted-portals

We attach the following condition(s) to the award of the grant, that require your review and action, in order to be able to receive funds under the CESP programme:

1. In the “Detailed budget” section of the project proposal:

• Please provide the nature of the work, salary rate and expected person months (PM) for each salary entry.
• Please provide price & volume on all budget lines (example: number of people & unit price)
• In the description of expense field, please provide amounts in local currency.

Providing this information will help us to evaluate any changes between the budget plan and realized expenses when we come to review your financial reports.

See FAQ ( https://www.gbif.org/faq?question=gbif-grants-how-do-i-fill-in-the-budget-in-the-full-proposal ) for further information.

2. Please remove from the budget the expense related to the IT purchase (notebook), which is ineligible for funding under CESP, and reduce the requested amount in EUROs by this amount accordingly. You may include this purchase as a cofunded expense.

3. In the “Documents” section of the project proposal, please upload missing letters of confirmation from all additional partners in Tajikistan, confirming their involvement and role in the project, ensuring that this aligns with the role indicated in the full proposal.

Your proposal is now available for updating in the GBIF Grantee Portal. Please be aware that we do not expect any other changes to the proposal other than in the relevant sections as mentioned in the condition(s) above. Therefore, please do not update any other parts of your proposal.

Please proceed to update your proposal in the Grants Portal and resubmit this by clicking “Accept” by no later than 13 September 2023.

Once the proposal has been resubmitted via the GBIF Grantee Portal, we will then contact you about the contract and its signature procedure.

[dagendresen]

GBIF News story on 2023-11-29 about the approved CESP projects