EDIT - European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy -

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Secretariat seeks an experienced and energetic coordinator for our Participation portfolio. The Head of Participation (HoP) post is an exciting opportunity to work in a multi-cultural environment on a global initiative playing a leading role in increasing our understanding, use and sustainable management of biodiversity. This strategic role encompasses both growing the awareness of, and participation in GBIF, amongst countries, organisations and others and coordinating ongoing Secretariat-Participant interactions, particularly needs analyses and provision of services to GBIF Participants as GBIF moves to a more distributed network model dependent on fully functional Participants.
This is a senior-level post reporting to the Director, with an initial contract of up to five years and an attractive salary benefiting from the diplomatic status of the Secretariat. The 19-staff Secretariat is located in Copenhagen, Denmark.

GBIF is an international ‘public-good’ initiative (current membership of 49 countries and 39 international organisations) with the mandate of mobilising the world’s primary biodiversity data via the Internet in support of national and international science, conservation and sustainable development decision-making. Currently the GBIF data portal provides access to more than 2700 datasets worldwide holding more than 163 million records (http://data.gbif.org). Secretariat priorities, with the emphasis on growing participation and working through partners to mobilise biodiversity data, include developing protocols and standards to ensure scientific integrity and interoperability, building a global informatics and metadata architecture to allow the interlinking of diverse data types from disparate sources, providing training and promoting capacity building and catalyzing development of the analytical tools for improved decision-making. For more detailed information on GBIF and our 09-10 Work Programme please visit www.gbif.org.

A. The Participation work area encompasses all aspects of external relations including broadly:
1. Developing strategic partnerships including outreach to potential and existing Participants, focussed on growing participation in GBIF
2. Working directly with Participants at national, regional and organisational levels to understand their information needs, and, via constant interaction with the Secretariat Informatics team and wider
GBIF community, providing solutions to these needs. Priorities include for example analyses of major ecological change due to climate change, impacts of invasive species and biodiversity loss.
3. Developing and implementing training and capacity building curricula and materials to enhance participation in GBIF and capacitate Participants to take advantage of the concepts, products and services developed by the GBIF community.
4. Overall communications and public relation approaches to the wider scientific, conservation, business and policy communities, including website content development, media releases, scientific and popular articles
and general communications support to the Secretariat and GBIF membership.

B. The HoP is a new strategic post designed to fully integrate the Participation work area in order to better coordinate our external focus in addressing needs and developing services and products to benefit Participants and attract new Participants. The HoP will:
1. Develop strategies and identify opportunities to grow participation in GBIF. These activities will include both growing the awareness of, and participation in GBIF amongst countries, international organisations, research and academic institutions and private enterprise and negotiating and formalising strategic partnerships as
appropriate.2. Lead the interaction with the different scientific, conservation and policy communities and broker the development and delivery of key informatics products and services to address multi-stakeholder needs elicited through these ongoing interactions with stakeholders.
3. Lead the development of a communication strategy including branding and coordination of all external liaisons.
4. Identify and pursue new funding approaches including to promote and coordinate the GBIF Campaigns concept.
5. Play a key role in Secretariat strategic planning and serve as the main liaison between the Participation work area and the rest of the Secretariat and GBIF membership.
6. Be output and service driven with a proven ability to manage both internal and external teams and deliver relevant products and services in a collaborative, participatory yet demanding multi-stakeholder
environment.
7. Have the opportunity to define an additional post within the Participation work area if required.

C. Prospective applicants should ideally have a combination of the following:
1. A career track record in scientific domains such as agriculture, biodiversity, biology, ecology, biotechnology, biogeography, climate, marine and/or earth sciences.
2. Significant experience /exposure (at least 5 years) as a programme/ project manager for a variety of high-level, innovative science projects, preferably related to web technologies and/or large data
sets and data integration, and innovative large-scale analyses.
3. Worked within and/or have a thorough understanding of the realm of biodiversity information, including systematics, conservation science and policy, and the reporting requirements of the major multilateral
environmental treaties.
4. Experience working on inter-governmental initiatives and coordinating activities involving a wide range of distributed participants, including governmental, NGO and scientific groups.
5. Experience extracting and interpreting disparate user needs and translating these for development into appropriate informatics products and services.
6. Experience/exposure in conceptualising, planning and implementing product launches.
7. A track record of successful international and national fund-raising.

D. Personal attributes include that an applicant must:
1. Have superb English language skills; fluency in other UN languages is highly desirable.
2. Be comfortable in face-to-face interactions with a diversity of audiences and sensitive to cultural, political and regional differences.
3. Be an excellent public presenter in both preparation of multi-media materials and in presentation thereof.
4. Have excellent inter-personal and communication skills to motivate a team of skilled professionals and external contributors.
5. Be able to work successfully as both a leader and as a team player.
6. Be self-motivated, highly innovative and looking for a significant career growth opportunity.

The Head of Participation is expected to take up office by 1 April 2009 or as soon as possible thereafter. Further enquiries and applications should be addressed to the Director, Dr Nicholas King at: HOP@gbif.org . Applications should include a concise CV outlining relevant
experience, with a cover-letter detailing how you meet the requirements listed in B, C & D (and numbered accordingly), and your vision for contributing to the overall mission of GBIF. Include 3-5 URLs or full copies of relevant scientific publications, outreach, PR, media, training, fund-raising and general external liaison products or materials. Closing date: 16 February 2009. Interviews will likely take place the last two weeks of February in Copenhagen.