<div dir="ltr"><img src="cid:ii_i5xrn1rs1_14b6e0ef585cfe39" width="221" height="121" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Arial; margin-right: 0px;"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Arial">                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             </span><img src="cid:ii_i5xrodef2_14b6e0ff97aa2003" width="160" height="128" style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Arial; margin-right: 0px;"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Arial"> </span><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Arial">​<br>​<br></span></div><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Arial"><div>Dear colleague,<br></div></span><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><p><span style="text-align:justify;font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)"><br></span></span></p><p><span style="text-align:justify;font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">The </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://biodiversity.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Belgian Biodiversity Platform</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)"> and several key Biodiversity Informatics related </span></span><a href="http://www.biodiversity.be/conference2015/about/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">partner</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span><a href="http://www.biodiversity.be/conference2015/about/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">institutes</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)"> are pleased to invite you to the Conference “<b>Empowering Biodiversity Research</b>”, which will take place on May 21<sup>th</sup> 2015 in Brussels at the </span></span><a href="http://www.biodiversity.be/conference2015/venue/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Palace of Academies</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">. </span></span></font><br></p><div><div link="blue" vlink="purple"><div><p style="margin-bottom:8.25pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">The conference will bring together representatives of national and international scientific institutes to explore and discuss the opportunities and strengths related to <b>Biodiversity Informatics and Open Data</b>. </span><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">Three keynote speakers will start the day : </span></span></p><ol start="1" type="1" style="margin-top:0cm"><li style="margin-bottom:8.25pt;color:rgb(64,64,64);text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial">Vince Smith, research leader in informatics at the </span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color:windowtext"><a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Natural History Museum</span></a></span><span style="font-family:Arial">, London</span></font></li><li style="margin-bottom:8.25pt;color:rgb(64,64,64);text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial">Dr Hilde Eggermont, Scientific Coordinator at the </span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color:windowtext"><a href="http://biodiversity.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Belgian Biodiversity Platform</span></a></span></font></li><li style="margin-bottom:8.25pt;color:rgb(64,64,64);text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial">Pieter Colpaert, Researcher at </span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color:windowtext"><a href="http://okfn.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Open Knowledge Belgium</span></a></span></font></li></ol><p style="margin-bottom:8.25pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">This will be followed by a series of lightning talks illustrating Belgian research projects making use of biodiversity informatics tools. In the afternoon, we will showcase some related state-of-the-art projects. During the breaks, there will be, in addition to coffee and sweets, a </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://biodiversity.be/conference2015/submit-poster/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">poster session</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)"> and a </span></span><a href="http://biodiversity.be/conference2015/fair/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">fair</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)"> where you can find information and tools which can help you in your future research.</span></span></font></p><p style="margin-bottom:8.25pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">Biodiversity Informatics deals with the application of informatics techniques to biodiversity information for improved management, presentation, discovery, exploration and analysis of scientific data. Combined with open data sources on the Internet, this is a powerful new approach in doing research. With this conference, we hope to provide networking opportunities and foster debate among participants. Through your participation, you can help developing issues to be further explored by the project, and to be fed into a series of dedicated workshops that will be organised after the conference.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8.25pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">For more information on program and registration (small registration fee of 10 euro):</span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.biodiversity.be/conference2015/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">http://www.biodiversity.be/conference2015/</span></a></font></p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">If you have any questions, please </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.biodiversity.be/conference2015/contact/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">contact us</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">. Please feel free to also forward this invitation to other potentially interested colleagues or organisations.</span></span></font></p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p><p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">We are looking forward to seeing you at our “Empowering Biodiversity Research” Conference 2015 !</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8.25pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8.25pt;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">Kind Regards,</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom:8.25pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">The </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.biodiversity.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Belgian Biodiversity Platform</span></a></font></p></div><span style="font-family:Arial"><div><p style="margin-bottom:8.25pt"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">and partners:</span></p></div><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)"><br clear="all"></span></span><div><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.lifewatch.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Lifewatch Belgium</span></a></font></p><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.naturalsciences.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences</span></a></font></p><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.africamuseum.be/home?set_language=en&cl=en" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Royal Museum for Central Africa</span></a></font></p><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.br.fgov.be/PUBLIC/GENERAL/index.php" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Botanic Garden Meise</span></a></font></p><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.vliz.be/en" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Flanders Marine Institute</span></a></font></p><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.uclouvain.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Université catholique de Louvain</span></a></font></p><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.inbo.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Research Institute for Nature and      Forest</span></a></font></p><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.ulb.ac.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Université Libre de Bruxelles</span></a></font></p><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span></span><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.gembloux.ulg.ac.be/" title="This external link will open in a new window" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Arial">Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech</span></a></font></p><p style="margin-left:27pt"><span style="font-family:Arial"><span style="color:rgb(64,64,64)">• </span><u><span style="color:blue">Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO)</span></u></span></p></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial"><u><span style="color:blue"><br></span></u></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Pierre Huybrechts<div><i><font color="#45818e">Belgian Biodiversity Platform</font></i></div><div><i>Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO)</i></div><div>Avenue Louise 231 Louizalaan</div><div>B-1050 Brussels</div><div>Belgium</div><div>E-mail : <a href="mailto:p.huybrechts@biodiversity.be" target="_blank">p.huybrechts@biodiversity.be</a> </div><div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><img src="http://www.biodiversity.be/1575/download/inline" height="73" width="96"></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><font color="#45818e" size="1"><b>WATCH OUR BELGIAN BIODIVERSITY PLATFORM MOVIES ON:</b></font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><font color="#45818e" size="1"><a href="http://vimeo.com/114955090" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/114955090</a> (data publication activities)</font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><font color="#45818e" size="1"><a href="http://vimeo.com/114955160" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/114955160</a> (science-policy activities)</font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><font color="#45818e" size="1"><a href="http://vimeo.com/114955193" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/114955193</a> (our general mission)</font></div></div><div><font color="#45818e" size="1"><br></font></div></div></div></div></div></div>