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Small Collections Grant

This page is used to provide assessment scores for each  grant application assigned to you. Please use the rubric below the grant details to enter your assessment scores and any notes you wish to include.
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Processing and databasing the Cryptogamic Collections of the the Darwinion Botanical Institute (SI)

renee.fortunato@darwin.edu.ar

Argentina

Database, Digitally image, Process backlog, Conserve, Other

Cost (USD): 

2000

SI

Instituto de Botánica Darwinion

Objective:

- Process and improve the conservation of the Cryptogamic collections at SI.
- Database and digitally image the Cryptogamic collections at SI.
- Develop an open-access “Virtual Cryptogamic Herbarium”.

Timetable:

* Training of the technicians in cryptogramic systematics and manipulation. Provision of a proper storage area for the cryptogrammic collection. (Month 1)
* Inventory of the whole cryptogrammic collection, while classifying algae, Bryophyta (into the respective lineages), fungi, and lichens. (Months 1-6)
* Digitization of the cryptogamic collection, using "Documenta Florae Australis" database. Production of high quality images of the specimens. (Months 2-12)
* Process and improvement of the collection (mounting, barcoding, storaging in envelopes, boxes, and other specific devices). (Months 2-12)
* Online and free access provision of the virtual herbarium of cryptogams. (Months 11-12)

Scoring Rubric

Reviewer's name:

Collection Improvement (max. 120 points)

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  • Facilitating access to the physical collections by digitization (e.g., data entry, setting up database structure with an outline of the platform to be used, purchasing equipment, and imaging specimens) – up to 30 points.

  • Enhancing physical collections by improving the conservation status of specimens in the herbarium (e.g., better folders, protecting covers, mounting paper, labeling, etc.) – up to 30 points.

  • Curating specimens (e.g., updating families, species identification, identifying types) – up to 20 points.

  • Increasing our understanding of the flora or funga by making new herbarium specimens available, such as processing of backlog or collecting and mounting of new specimens from understudied sites – up to 20 points.

  • Securing collections by distribution of duplicates (or orphan collections) to other regional or international herbaria or shipping endangered collections to another herbarium – up to 20 points.

This proposal scores:

/120

Methods & Funding (max. 40 points)

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  • Match between the proposed budget and methods for the aims described – up to 10 points.

  • Perceived need, the extent to which the project will benefit from IAPT funding: e.g., due to active floristic work or contribution to poorly collected sites, due to threatened conditions of collections, and for the degree of involvement of others (outreach and education). We give more points for herbaria in low- and middle-income countries – up to 20 points.

  • Sharing duplicate specimens with other herbaria – up to 10 points.

This proposal scores:

/40

Broader Impacts (max. 40 points)

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  • Degree of regional importance of the collection or the taxonomic importance of the targeted collection – up to 10 points.

  • The project will yield durable benefits (specimens, digitized metadata, databases, websites) – up to 15 points.

  • The project involves outreach/mentoring and broad dissemination – up to 15 points.

This proposal scores:

/40

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Year of last successful SCG application:

Has applicant applied for SCG before?:

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Plan:

The Darwinion Institute, sited in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was founded by Dr. Cristóbal Hicken in late XIX Century to hold his private library and herbarium. As Hicken's legacy, the Darwinion and its holdings were donated to the National Academy of Sciences in 1933. Since then, the number of vascular plant specimens increased to conform an important regional collection. Nevertheless, not the same happened to the small but valuable cryptogamic collection, that remains unprocessed to this day. The estimated number of cryptogamic specimens is 15000, including several historical collections, such as F. Ápollinaire’s lichens and mosses from Colombia; M. Britzelmayr’s, european mosses (1903); M. Fleischer’s fungi from the East Indies (1898-1905); E. Holway’s fungi from South America (1927-1931); I. Mackenzie Lamb’s lichens from Patagonia (1950); and W. Mitten’s, mosses from the Antarctic Expedition of J. D. Hooker, just to mention some.
The specimens will be processed by the technicians of the institute, who will be teached in systematics of algae, fungi and bryophytes, and trained in cryptogams manipulation. The applicant, together with the curator of the herbarium, are experienced in managing work teams, and have leaded digitization/imaging projects, such as Jstor's Global Plants, and provided data to GBIF and the Argentinean National System of Biological Data.
The requested budget include mounting materials and informatic labors (database improvements and online availability).

Institution:

IH Code:

Country:

Target areas:

Applicant First Name/s:

email:

Online free access to data

"Other" target:

Renée H. Fortunato

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Applicant Last Name/s:

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