Collaborative Research: Disciplinary Improvements: AI-ready Ecology and Biodiversity Data Infrastructure for Open Science

This project develops an open and scalable data infrastructure for AI–enabled ecological and biodiversity research. It addresses challenges of fragmented, inconsistent, and inaccessible data by enabling automated, standardized access across a variety of sources while preserving data quality, provenance, and attribution. The infrastructure includes a dynamic inventory and map of existing data sources, assessed for their readiness to support AI applications. It defines shared schemas, aligns taxonomies and ontologies, and provides standard machine-accessible interfaces to enable AI model training and deployment. It is evaluated using a set of exemplar use cases spanning multiple stakeholders. By aligning technical development with the needs of science and decision-making, this infrastructure will serve as a foundation for AI-driven discoveries and action in ecology and related fields. This award by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure within the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering is jointly supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.