Colombia's cyberinfrastructure for biodiversity: Building data infrastructure in emerging countries to foster socioeconomic growth

Abstract

Colombia is a "megadiverse" country with vast natural resources. A history of recent conflict means that information is only now being collected on the natural capital of regions that were previously unexplored. Better access to data, tools, and expertise is required for evidence-supported decisions on the conservation of these resources.The development of a bespoke cyberinfrastructure could help fulfill this need by providing access to digital resources in a collaborative cyberenvironment. We outline key priorities and develop a reference framework for building cyberinfrastructure in Colombia. This framework could be applied to other fields and countries to promote knowledge exchange, scientific innovation, and socioeconomic growth.

Anti-inflammatory screening of plant species from the Colombian Caribbean Coast

“…Large amounts of data about Colombia's ecosystems are being collected in the "Colombia BIO" expeditions, including novel biodiversity in previously unexplored regions due to the internal conflict. Unfortunately, for a high percentage of these species, there is sparse knowledge, which has avoided taking advantage of the benefits in the food, medicine, and industry (De Vega et al, 2020). An alternative way to take advantage of these biological resources is the practice of bioprospecting, which implies the interaction between different types of knowledge, especially ancestral knowledge that local and indigenous communities in South American countries have, with the scientific knowledge contributed by the academic and industrial sectors, especially the pharmaceutical industry (Duarte and Velho, 2008).…”

CyberColombia: a Regional Initiative to Teach HPC and Computational Sciences

“…Several sectors important for Colombia's economy are data-intensive, including: Drug development [1], weather prediction [2], oil and gas exploration [3], astrophysics [4], biodiversity genomics [5], development of new materials [6,7] and AI [8].…”

“…A primordial event was the C3Biodiversidad workshop organised in Bogota in June 2018. In this workshop, experts from sixteen Colombian institutions, and a panel of international infrastructure maintainers and tool developers from the UK and USA, carried out an analysis of the needs to promote a cyberinfrastructure for the analysis of Colombia's biodiversity data [5].…”

Alianza interinstitucional para el control de enfermedades zoonóticas en la era COVID-19

“…Como parte de nuestra misión como científicos esperamos que mediante la transferencia y el fortalecimiento tecnológico de las universidades en la investigación, sea posible ofrecer herramientas científicotecnológicas a los productores, profesionales e instituciones de control y asistencia técnica, lo cual pueda llegar a presentar un impacto en otros municipios y sectores económicos no solo del departamento sino del país (9). La transferencia de tecnología desde la universidad a la comunidad se convierte en una herramienta de descentralización y desarrollo de las regiones, además de tecnificación de la producción agropecuaria para impactar incluso Alianza interinstitucional para el control de enfermedades zoonóticas en la era COVID-19 la normatividad vigente como un aporte social (10,11). Finalmente, la lección después de todo es que el trabajo colaborativo genera resultados más efectivos y ese es un valor agregado de la primera convocatoria de proyectos de investigación conjuntos entre la Universidad de Cundinamarca y la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Bogotá, que posiblemente aún no se reconoce entre la comunidad académica y científica.…”