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ViBRANT is funded by the European Union 7th Framework Programme within the Research Infrastructures group.

Contract no. RI-261532. Period, Dec. 2010 to Nov. 2013. Coordinator: Dr Vince Smith. E-mail: enquiries@vbrant.eu

Man. Comm. 4

Submitted by Dave Roberts on Tue, 04/01/2011 - 16:19

Venue: NHM NE Tower, 7th floor

Start: 13:00 GMT (Please note, lunch will be available from 12:00)

Duration: 24 hours

Meeting 4 : Agenda [28 Oct 11]

Apologies for absence
Financial reporting - Gemma

All partners have been asked to complete financial returns to the end
of September. This will give the Management Committee first
opportunity to assess overall spend and correct issues that may affect
the next payment from the Commission.

Note that individual partners have to complete their financial
returns promptly and get them to us as coordinators. The EU will not
process the next tranche of funds until they are all present.
Project Co-ordinator's report - Vince

Project-wide issues, matters from the strategic board and project invitations to meetings.

Workpackage Updates

To prepare for the annual report, which will be assessed by referees.
A satisfactory report is required to secure the next tranche of
funding.

WP1 - Dave

M1.10 - Confirmation of year 1 meeting dates	31 Dec 10	http://vbrant.eu/content/management-committee
M1.11 - Circulation of next meeting agenda	31 Dec 10	http://vbrant.eu/content/management-committee-meeting
M1.12 - Organise kick-off meeting	31 Dec 10	http://vbrant.eu/scripting-life
M1.13 - Minutes of management committee meetings	28 Feb 11	http://vbrant.eu/content/management-committee-meeting
M1.14 - Minutes of strategic board meetings	28 Feb 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/ViBRANT_StrategicBoardMinutes_Jan11.pdf
M1.15 - Circulation of next meeting agenda	30 Apr 11	http://vbrant.eu/content/man-comm-2
M1.16 - Minutes of management committee meetings	30 Jun 11	http://vbrant.eu/content/man-comm-2
M1.17 - Minutes of strategic board meetings	30 Jun 11	http://vbrant.eu/content/strategic-board-2
M1.19 - Preparation of first JPA templates	31 Aug 11
M1.18 - Circulation of next meeting agenda	31 Aug 11	This document
M1.20 - Minutes of management committee meetings	18 Nov 11	Delayed because of change of meeting date
M1.21 - Confirmation of year 2 and 3 meeting dates	30 Nov 11	http://vbrant.eu/content/man-comm-3
M1.22 - Circulation of next meeting agenda	31 Dec 11
M1.23 - First year financial reports	31 Dec 11

WP2 - Simon

M2.10 - Test version of distributed Scratchpad server	31 May 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/m2.10.pdf
M2.11 - Report on Scratchpad usage statistics options	31 May 11
M2.12 - Ongoing module development supporting prioritised features requested by users through WP3	30 Nov 11
M2.13 - Define further milestones in the light of usage and feedback	30 Nov 11
D2.1 - Distributing servers	30 Nov 11

WP3 - Thierry

M3.10 - Delivery of a promotional strategy for ViBRANT services	30 Sep 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/M.3.10_Delivery%20of%20a%20promotional%20strategy%20for%20ViBRANT%20services_0.pdf
M3.12 - Assessment of user support services, with the refinement of subsequent milestones	30 Nov 11
M3.11 - Recommendations to modify products to maximise user uptake	30 Nov 11
D3.1 - Training strategy	30 Nov 11

WP4 - Yde

M4.11 - Prototype of collaborative community interface	31 May 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/M4.11%E2%80%94Prototype%20of%20co...
M4.10 - Define methods to use the Scratchpad service layer deliverable within the CDM store	31 May 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/ViBRANT%20M410%20Specification%20...
M4.12 - Liaison and networking with ontology experts and existing ontology providers	31 Jul 11
M4.13 - Release an API on the catalogue of resources	31 Aug 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/M4.13%20-%20Release%20an%20API%20...
M4.14 - Define further milestones in the light of usage and feedback	30 Nov 11
D4.1 - Scratchpad common access point	30 Nov 11

WP5 - Neil

M5.10 - API design plan	31 Dec 10	http://vbrant.eu/content/ms-510-api-design-plan
M5.12 - Review user requirements for the visualisation tool for Scratchpads	28 Feb 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/M5-12.pdf
M5.11 - Review existing key construction software and workflow interaction with both Scratchpads and the CDM	28 Feb 11	http://www.infosyslab.fr/vibrant/M5_11_deliverable_UPMC_february2011.pdf
M5.13 - API baseline documentation	31 Mar 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/M5.13.api_baseline.txt
M5.14 - Review of target applications (phylogenetics)	31 Mar 11
M5.15 - API version control	30 Apr 11
M5.16 - Review of target platforms and requirements	30 Jun 11
M5.17 - Define further milestones in the light of usage and feedback	30 Nov 11
M5.18 - Review user requirements for enhanced user interface	30 Nov 11
M5.19 - Deliver prototype key-generating service through Scratchpads	30 Nov 11
D5.1 - Prototype workflows and API	30 Nov 11

WP6 - Lyubo

M6.10 - Use cases of existing standards of XML mark up tagging and semantic enhancement collected and review	28 Feb 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/Milestone%206%2010-Review%20of%20...
M6.11 - Prototype and beta-version of XML submission from Scratchpads to publishers	31 Jul 11
M6.12 - Workshop on mark up tagging tools and implementations at TDWG	31 Oct 11
M6.13 - Define further milestones in the light of usage and feedback	30 Nov 11
D6.1 - XML mark up tool & service	30 Nov 11

WP7 - David

M7.10 - Agreement of standard format for community contributed bibliographies in conjunction with WP4	17 Jun 11	http://wiki.scratchpads.eu/w/M710report for work in progress.
M7.11 - Review of options for interactive mark up tools within the Scratchpad infrastructure	17 Jun 11	http://wiki.scratchpads.eu/w/M711report for work in progress.
M7.12 - A suite of test cases that will be used to test the de-duplication software	31 Jul 11
M7.13 - Review of options to use typographical information and other contextual clues	31 Jul 11
M7.14 - Collaboration with WP6 on mark-up tagging tools and implementation	31 Oct 11
D7.1 - Community contributed bibliography	30 Nov 11

WP8 - Christos

M8.10 - Prototype ecological and conservation applications	31 May 11	http://vbrant.scratchpads.org/sites/vbrant.scratchpads.org/files/Milestone_8.10_Indices_C_code_v0.1.zip https://git.scratchpads.eu/viewgit?p=indices.git;a=summary
M8.11 - Review of relevant field recording tools and applications	31 May 11
M8.13 - Define further milestones in the light of usage and feedback	30 Nov 11
M8.14 - Prototype demonstration project with non-professional marine naturalists	30 Nov 11
M8.12 - Identify rules for an intelligent algorithm to identify suspicious data records in GBIF data	30 Nov 11
D8.1 - Scratchpad modules engaging citizen scientists	30 Nov 11

Reporting - Dave

Data tables for 1st year reports, including presentations,
publications etc.. Note that the Commission will refuse to pay for
conference travel unless a dissemination product is reported.
Milestones & Deliverables for Year 2 - WP leaders

As an agile project, we anticipated setting new milestones each year.
We will need these to be established before the report is submitted.
WP leaders are asked to identify milestones that can cross workpackages.
Special publication - Vince

A progress report on the ViBRANT Special Issue to be published by Pensoft.
Associated grant proposals - various
1. The NHM & Oxford proposal to the UK's BBSRC in conjunction with EBI was not funded.
2. A bid to the EU Infrastructure programme 'agBioINFRA' was not funded.
3. eMonocot: A UK research council funded project with Kew Gardens and Oxford University to develop a Web resource on Monocot plants.
4. A new project agINFRA will kick off in Rome 8-10
  Nov. This funds one person in the OU and will use Scratchpads as
  communication platform, taking us into the agriculture domain.
5. BioVel has been funded and is expected to link to ViBRANT.
6. EoL : relations with EoL are extremely good and
  data are starting to flow from Scratchpads to EoL. We plan to use EoL
  services in Scratchpads2 as part of the species page where possible.
7. BHL: WP7 are intending to use CiteBank as the primary literature repository, pending the outcome of discussions after TDWG.
8. GN (aka GNA and Nomina): the US
  consortium has secured pilot-phase funding for 2 years. They have an
  urgent need to show application, so ideas are sought for services (= use
  cases) that they can deliver by May 2012. The condition is that any
  such service needs to be demonstrably used in June so that it can be
  quoted in the grant proposal for construction-phase funding in July
  2012. There is a possibility that this will be a parallel EU-NSF call.
9. 4D4Life, Species2000 and Catalogue of Life. With the untimely death of Frank Bisbey, the committee is asked to consider the impact on
Events calendar & training - Dave

Events are now listed on the web site. This item is an opportunity to
raise questions about ViBRANT's participation in up-coming events.

TDWG will be in Beijing next year and should be in Europe in 2013,
provided a local host can be identified. This will be close to the end
of ViBRANT funding and eMonocot funding, so a UK venue would be logical,
but logistically extremely hard.
External links

Links to external projects are now on the web site. This item is an
opportunity to discuss the appropriateness of including any particular
link.
Future meeting dates

18 January 2012 from 10:00 to 12:00
18 April
2012 from 10:00 to 12:00
18 July 2012 from 10:00 to 12:00
17
October 2012 from 10:00 to 12:00 to 18 October at 12:00
16
January 2013 from 10:00 to 12:00
17 April 2013 from 10:00 to
12:00
17 July 2013 from 10:00 to 12:00
16 October 2013 from
10:00 to 12:00 to 17 October at 12:00

Any other business

Delegates;

Vince Smith, Project Coordinator	Dave Roberts, WP 1 Leader
Simon Rycroft, WP2 Leader	Thierry Backlejau, WP3 Deputy
Yde de Jong, WP4	Neil Caithness, WP5 Leader
Lyubomir Penev, WP6 Leader	David Morse, WP7 Leader
Christos Arvanitidis, WP8 Leader	Lucy Reeve (Admin)
Gemma Maldar, Finance

Minutes

1. WP1
2. WP2
3. WP3
4. WP4
5. WP5
6. WP6
7. WP7
8. WP8
1. The NHM & Oxford proposal to the UK's BBSRC in conjunction with EBI was not funded. Feedback has still not been received.
2. A bid to the EU Infrastructure programme 'agBioINFRA' was not funded.
3. eMonocot: NERC-funded project to establish comprehensive web resource for monocot plants. NHM, Kew and University of Oxford. Started same time as ViBRANT. Will deliver large number of users. Using Scratchpads as assembly point for content. Also connects through Darwin Core archive to customised portal. NHM doing Scratchpads and outreach, Kew providing content, Oxford building portal.
4. A new project agINFRA will kick off in Rome 8-10 Nov. This funds one person in the OU and will use Scratchpads as communication platform, taking us into the agriculture domain. EU funded infrastructure project to support agricultural information systems. FAO is a major driver. Lots of reports which are not very accessible. OU role is to make the literature more accessible. Most scanned and online but searching is impossible. Recruitment in process. AgriDrupal is suite of modules of relevance to agricultural community. Propose use of Scratchpads as being a vehicle for getting people interested to have a common platform of information. Trying to get standardised way and getting people to see value of application. Funding agencies are looking for approaches to improve their key strategies which makes it easier to look at new funding opportunities.
5. BioVel has been funded and is expected to link to ViBRANT. They want to learn more about ViBRANT but are not willing to share their description of work. There may be a perception of overlap by the Commission which needs to be addressed.
6. EoL: relations with EoL are extremely good and data are starting to flow from Scratchpads to EoL. We plan to use EoL services in Scratchpads2 as part of the species page where possible. The intention is to use EoL structure and processes. Data exchange between EoL and Scratchpads2. Pushing data to EoL through species profile module descriptions. VS attending meeting in Panama in Jan to discuss funding for EoL.
7. BHL: WP7 were intending to use CiteBank as the primary literature repository, pending the outcome of discussions after TDWG, but will in fact take over the content of the existing site while BHL restrict CiteBank sensu lato to materials in BHL's repository. BHL will be focusing on data extraction and application methods.
8. GN (aka GNA and Nomina): the US consortium has secured pilot-phase funding for 2 years. They have an urgent need to show application, so ideas are sought for services (= use cases) that they can deliver by May 2012. The condition is that any such service needs to be demonstrably used in June so that it can be quoted in the grant proposal for construction-phase funding being written in July 2012. There is a possibility that this will be a parallel EU-NSF call. This is dependant on what GBIF are already doing.
9. 4D4Life, Species2000 and Catalogue of Life. With the untimely death of Frank Bisby, the committee does not know what is going to happen to these projects. Someone is needed to host catalogue of life. Get several million for hosting backbone of Lifewatch so will change the landscape. Next week Sp.2000 team will meet in Leiden Yde in contact and will advise that SP2 could be a tool. Will keep management team informed.
  
  CoL is not widely used, people generally import their own taxonomies. Scratchpads will not be suitable tool to fill gaps in CoL as too many are geographically restricted.
  
  Only concern ViBRANT has is how can scale to very large taxonomies. Conceptually perfect fit could have proto GST. No objection to Scratchpads being used as a vehicle.
- 1 Dec 11 The online reporting system will open.
- 16 Dec 11 Draft financial reports submitted to LR for feedback.
  
  Final financial reports are to be submitted as soon as possible once feedback has been provided.
- 20 Jan 12 Form C’s must be completed and provided to the NHM in hard copy. We understand that the Form C will be automatically generated by inputting the financial reports into the NEF but this cannot be confirmed until the online system opens.
- Vizzuality's Red List tool;
- Pensoft's publication tools;
- HMCR's COMBER project;
- WP2's redesign of the tech back end for Scratchpads.
- major system
- modules
- contributions by user communities

Apologies

Wouter Los, WP4 Leader

Financial Reporting

Key dates were circulated:

Review dates are still unconfirmed but need to be set as a priority. At this point it is still unclear how many delegates will be required to attend. YdJ noted that PESI has the same Desk Officer and all WP leaders were required to attend.

All were reminded of the necessity of obtaining permission from the Desk Officer to use ViBRANT funds for travel outside the EU. Requests should be submitted to LR who will seek permission from the Desk Officer. If permission is not sought the spend may be rejected by the Commission. Please note that this has taken a significant amount of time, so requests well in advance are advisable.

If a partner has underspent in Year 1 the budget can be carried forward into Year 2 without formal Commission approval. Justification should be provided in the annual report. Shoud the spend across all the partners be less than one-third of the total project budget it will draw the Commission's attention. We are already aware of travel funds for training and dissemination (WP3) are being planned for the second two years and WP4 has had problems of recruitment and is planning a re-distribution of budget.

WP leaders were advised that financial reports will be requested from each partner at 18 months, when the next tranche of payments is due.

All were reminded that submission of the Year 1 report cannot be completed until Form Cs from all partners have been received. The next payment from the Commission will not be released until the reports are completed.

Action: WP leaders to contact partners requesting a timely return of financial reports

Action: Information and reporting templates to be posted on the website as soon as they are available (DR)

Virement between direct cost budget headings is allowed (e.g. travel and consumables), but note that for partners in more than one workpackage that reimbursment rates vary between teh three threads (research, networking and 'other'). There may be problems if transfers are made from direct to personnel and vice versa: please check with LR before making such transfers.

It is likely that the NHM will be required to fill in the on-line tool using the financial data provided by the partners. This will be confirmed once the on-line tool is open on 1 December 2011.

Project Co-ordinator’s report

VS congratulated all on the work of the past year. ViBRANT is now labelled as a major initiative and is being engaged in a range of other initiatives. Highlights include:

All were urged to keep both the events, publications and dissemination lists on the web site up to date. These will form elements of the annual reports. For those that have released products, the records of usage rates are required.

This year has been a holding year for Scratchpads with backend work to launch Scratchpads 2. Usage is very high which is causing problems.

Next year is a major opportunity to promote ViBRANT at a more public level. e-Monocot and GBIF Nodes Portal Toolkit have potential to attract a large number of users in the next year.

TDWG (China) and e-biosphere are both large promotion opportunities. TDWG 2013 which is expected to be in Europe coincides with the end of ViBRANT and e-Monocot. We should consider being involved in organising the event, but both the NHM and Kew would have serious logistical problems for a meeting of that size.

Planning needs to be started in the middle of next year for a future ViBRANT. We will need to think about strategy.

Usage statistics will be able to dig much deeper next year, including activities not part of Scratchpads. There is an excellent foundation which will need to be built upon in Year 2.

Workpackage Updates

Reporting

NHM will take data tables directly from the ViBRANT website. If conference travel is in the financial report there should be something on the website to support this.

Action: All to remind WP participants to add outputs to ViBRANT website

Action: DR to circulate report through website and investigate GoogleDocs as a vehicle

Milestones and Deliverables for Year 2

WP8

There is a collective interest in tomography and workflows. A mailing list is to be set up on workflows. Communication is essential to avoid multiple approaches.

Potential milestones are:

tomography, consideration of tomography standards, review of tomography tools currently available

how to publish tomography; to investigate potential mechanisms for publication of tomography data

Deliverables for the next two years need to be defined

WP7

Two strands exist:

taking markup forward. Need to restrain ambitions in the light of challenges. Markup of bibliographies is sufficient.

taking bibliographies forward. Accessibility issues need to be resolved and a cleaner link to model of current publications.

Keeping focused on references keeps consistency and adds value. Extra resource will be coming in from agINFRA.

WP7 needs to deliver a prototype very quickly.

WP6

Another publication should be developed.

The Pensoft Markup Tool will be released.

WP5

There are three categories of services:

phylogenies

locality of specimens as data point (bioclimatic modelling etc)

platform-specific middleware and metadata repository design plan. These can be condensed and refined as have been done already.

A catalogue of services desired or available should be created. A mechanism by which people can submit suggestions through an open form should be developed.

BioVel are pushing phylogenetic services so there is potential to drop some of the phylogenetic aspects but need to be satisfied that it will work. There is uncertainty about what services BioVel will be developing and the timescale.

Need to explore the data which is not a one-click process. High application from one-click from people who do not want to use the software. Partition between two approaches which we need to be able to explain and understand the implications.

Action: DR to arrange meeting between WP5 and BioVel

WP4

Need to have broader picture of infrastructure. YdJ to go to Copenhagen and will try to find users to test Gregor’s work.

There is some scepticism about Gregors work. Objective of mediawiki to trigger standardisation process. Real need to development for SP is side issue.

Need for comparison between Dave Remsen and Gregor’s approaches. GBIF doesn’t care about development of community. Partners deal with involvement of community. Tool allows anyone to create vocabulary but not to edit it. Communities are not good at building vocabularies. Gregor argues that people are good at building vocabularies.

Gregor looking at ontologies and the GBIF tool is vocabularies.

There is an existing tool in Scratchpads and it is being used, but not fit to elevate to store ontologies.

The lack of progress made by Gregor is causing concern and needs to be addressed.

Level of development from GBIF low when ViBRANT proposal was written, but have been more active than expected. GBIF is also involved in WP8 but there was not much clarity in what is being delivered. NPT (community engagement) – money should be spent on that. We need to clarify a strategy now.

Statement of linkage between vocabularies and mark-up tools. PENSOFT already have established workflows which may be able to be put in. Want to reuse standardised vocabularies.

Need to see end to end services that are fully integrated so can justify to Commission.

WP3

M3.13 title to be refined.

Add exploring possibilities for training in other WPs. Other WP leaders are to suggest training needs within their WPs.

Compilation of site with help resources and links to other related activities.

More open mechanisms for peer reviews.

Scholarly communication is going to be big part of any future project.There is a need to identify activities that will change the perceptions of the community.

We note that the completed milestone M3.10 is the project dissemination plan.

WP2

M2.15 – potentially relates to data pub journal and registry. Mechanism to track use by reuse of downloads. Report could be achievable but service is not. Delay, make report on mechanisms to be implemented. This is more complicated than thought so new report date to be fixed asap.

Potentially the credit metric paper, submitted to the special issue, could be the foundation for this.

M2.14 (& M2.18)– overlaps a lot with WP4. All dependant on Darwin Core archive module.

WP7 has an interest in search and therefore the milestone. If this milestone is scheduled later then WP7 can have some involvement.

Additional milestones:

Overlap between ViBRANT and e-monocot.

Scratchpad core team during the year.

WP1

WP leaders should circulate information on changes, making sure that the web site contains the current realistic date, which will in turn feed back into prioritisation of deliverables.

Should Scratchpads be attempting to integrate with XML markup tool? A module is required that implements Guido’s work, but this is not a milestone for 2012.

Action: All WP leaders to submit their milestones by end of November 2011

Special publication

There are three categories of contributors:

The majority of contributions have arrived. There have been problems getting a second review for some. The deadline has been put back to try and push for in press statements by the end of November so the deliverable can be reported in Year 1.

All were asked that if contacted by VS for a review to turnround rapidly in order to achieve the 30 November deadline.

ViBRANT will be credited in the editorial introduction.

LP advised he would like to publish a short editorial on developments in Zookeys.

Associated grant proposals

Events calendar and training

All were reminded to populate the website with training events.

YdJ reported he is on the executive committee of TDWG.

External links

No issues were raised.

Future meeting dates

18 January 2012 from 10:00 to 12:00 This may be rescheduled as VS is in Panama. Last meeting before the reporting deadline.

18 April 2012 from 10:00 to 12:00

18 July 2012 from 10:00 to 12:00

17 October 2012 from 10:00 to 12:00 to 18 October at 12:00

16 January 2013 from 10:00 to 12:00

17 April 2013 from 10:00 to 12:00

17 July 2013 from 10:00 to 12:00

16 October 2013 from 10:00 to 12:00 to 17 October at 12:00

Any other business

Peter van den Besselaar is not employed by VU so GA will need amending. Paperwork will be distributed for signing in due course.

Attachment	Size
FIRST DRAFT ManComm4 Agenda.doc	48 KB