Consolidation of a global, visually oriented biodiversity portal on base of LifeGate

• Applicants: Privatdozent Dr. Martin Freiberg; Professorin Dr. Birgitta König-Ries
• Subject Area: Image and Language Processing, Computer Graphics and Visualisation, Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous and Wearable Computing ; Evolution and Systematics of Plants and Fungi ; Systematics and Morphology (Zoology)
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 575267472

There are far more species living in our planet's biosphere than have been scientifically described so far. Even the sheer number of species can only be roughly estimated. Thousands of new species are discovered and described every year. In order to keep track of everything, it is important to present the major patterns of biological diversity in a clear and concise manner. The online platform LifeGate created by the applicant (lifegate.idiv.de) creates such comprehensive access visually and intuitively and provides an understandable overview of all systematic groups. The existing data from LifeGate (systematics, taxonomy, phylogeny) are to be significantly expanded (descriptions, relationships, images, characteristics, etc.) and made easier accessible (frontend, user-friendliness, API, etc.). The potential of knowledge graphs and Large Language Models (AI), which have so far been rarely applied in this area, is to be used to access this data. These allow for comprehensive research and are ideally suited to making the wealth of data contained in literature (journals, flora and fauna works, "grey literature", etc.) accessible. Achieving this goal is ensured by close cooperation between biology (AG Freiberg) and computer science (AG König-Ries) and is to be made available to the public under a Creative Commons license.

• DFG Programme: Research data and software (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)