The call for nominations for the 2026 GBIF:Global Biodiversity Information Facility Graduate Researchers Award is now open. This annual programme aims to foster innovative research and discovery in biodiversity informatics by graduate students whose Masters’ and Doctoral Studies rely on GBIF mediated data.
Two €5000 prizes will be awarded, preferentially to one masters and one PhD candidate. Candidates must be enrolled in a university graduate programme to be eligible for the award. Candidates must be either:
a) citizens of a country participating in GBIF or,
b) students at an institution located in a GBIF participant country.
Nominations can come from either the candidate’s country of citizenship or the country of the candidate’s host institution.
From the global pool of nominated candidates, an expert jury coordinated through the GBIF Science Committee will select two recipients to be named as the 2026 Graduate Researchers Award winners. The GBIF Secretariat will announce winners prior to the 33rd meeting of the GBIF Governing Board (GB33) in September 2026 in Oslo, Norway.
While the deadline for receipt of nominations at the GBIF Secretariat is 29 May 2026, local deadlines for nominations apply.
UK nominations deadline
UK nominations must be submitted to r.wakling@kew.org and c.meggitt@kew.org with ‘GBIF Graduate Researcher’ in the subject line by 8 May 2026, following the instructions on the GBIF website.
Two nominations will then be selected for submission to GBIF by the UK GBIF Delegation (currently representatives of DEFRA, NERC, AHRC the Natural History Museum London, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the National Biodiversity Network Trust in time for the GBIF submission deadline. Please contact Alan Paton (A.paton@kew.org) for further information if required.