Objectives

Objective 1
Enhance research excellence at the University of Cyprus (UCY)

iBioGen will stimulate research excellence and innovation capacity in the field of biodiversity genomics at UCY. Cyprus’ unique geographic position at the easternmost end of the Mediterranean and at the crossroad of three continents, provides an excellent system for island biodiversity research, and a critical place to apply high-throughput biodiversity monitoring. However, the distance of Cyprus from the top research institutions of the EU has restricted such development. To overcome this impediment, the UCY and its EU research partners will pursue the following sub-objectives:

1.1. Enhance the scientific competence of UCY staff and students and promote research capability in biodiversity genomics.

1.2. Raise UCY’s international visibility, attractiveness and networking capabilities, to secure the continuous growth of UCY’s research potential and international competitiveness.

1.3. Strengthen the participation and success rate in research funding proposals submitted by UCY researchers.

1.4. Enhance the interdisciplinary research activities of all partner institutions.

Objective 2
Promote networking and interdisciplinary research in biodiversity genomics

Rapid developments in high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies and genomics for non-model organisms have boosted all aspects of biodiversity research, for example: the routine use of metagenomics for biodiversity assessment and community ecology population genomics to understand and predict demographic responses to climatic change, and phylogenomics for resolving diversification dynamics across the tree-of-life. The community-wide genomic datasets that are currently being accumulated offer unprecedented opportunities to integrate insights from ecological and evolutionary theory for a better understanding of biodiversity dynamics across space and time in a changing world. However, such a synthesis of biodiversity genomics is currently hindered by insufficient coordination among empirical biologists, bioinformaticians and theoreticians and by lack of standardization of methodologies, which complicates comparisons among genomic datasets.

iBioGen aims to address the existing networking gaps in the field of biodiversity genomics research that are currently impeding a wider empirical and theoretical integration. The following sub-objectives have been defined:

2.1. Integrate ecological field survey methodologies and genomics pipelines to generate high-throughput biodiversity assessment protocols applicable across EU island ecosystems.

This will be achieved by joining field ecologists and genomics experts with specialization in a wide range of taxa to review, adapt and develop state-of-the-art common standards for field sampling, molecular biology and bioinformatics. The main aim is the integration of high throughput sequence datasets from EU islands in a single database, and to integrate existing (Sanger sequence) data and DNA barcodes, thus facilitating comparisons among multiple island systems.

2.2. Establish a network of Genomic Observatories (GOs) for European island biodiversity, implementing the unified protocols and evaluating the best practices for quantifying genomic diversity and monitoring island biodiversity dynamics over time.

This sub-objective will implement the protocols developed in objective 2.1 across a network of islands of the EU (including oceanic and continental, Macaronesian and Mediterranean islands). GOs within Cyprus and the Canary Islands will provide (i) proof of concept, (ii) a fully costed GO protocol, and (iii) high visibility of the iBioGen initiative across the broader international community.

2.3. Promote a methodological and theoretical synthesis of biodiversity genomics, by bridging macroevolutionary (phylogenomics), microevolutionary (population genomics) and macroecological (metagenomics) approaches to island biodiversity.

Such a synthesis will have two principal goals: (i) improve biodiversity estimates, by integrating classical but simplistic measures of species richness with highly informative phylogenetic and genomic data, and (ii) understand the processes that shape the diversity of island communities, and their spatial and temporal dynamics, by integrating community composition dynamics with diversification and population dynamics. The iBioGen network will bring together empirical island biologists (both ecologists and evolutionary biologists) and theoreticians to work towards a conceptual and empirical unification in island biodiversity research.

Objective 3
Make a broader impact on the scientific community and on society

Cyprus harbours unique and vulnerable fauna and flora, which are threatened by invasive alien species, habitat destruction and climate change. Monitoring and conservation efforts have focused on certain prominent groups (e.g. vertebrates, angiosperms), but have largely overlooked the hidden biodiversity of the highly diverse but neglected smaller-bodied taxa, which represent a substantial component of total biomass and are fundamental for the functioning of ecosystems and the services they provide (e.g. agriculture, tourism). Biodiversity genomics holds great promise for accelerating inventories of previously neglected island communities (e.g. belowground biodiversity), as well as helping to understand the functional importance of this biodiversity and how it is generated and maintained across space and time. Applications of biodiversity genomics include rapid detection of invasive species or predicting demographic responses to climate change and assessing extinction risk. The iBioGen network will communicate the power of biodiversity genomics to the broader scientific community, the general public, and to relevant NGOs and policy makers, with the ultimate goal to integrate biodiversity genomics with monitoring and conservation initiatives. Specifically:

3.1. Impact on the broader scientific community by a research focus on the hitherto intractable “hidden” biodiversity of EU islands and the potential of biodiversity genomics for monitoring and protecting the full breadth of island biodiversity.

The application of biodiversity genomics to island systems will also extend theoretical advances in island biogeography and species evolution on islands that have greatly influenced evolutionary and ecological theory.

3.2. Engage policy makers, local authorities and NGOs to integrate island biodiversity genomics research with the needs of society (local community), specifically in Cyprus as a model test case.

The network will explain the power of biodiversity genomics for assessing natural and man-made ecosystems and communicate the objectives, vision and outcomes of iBioGen to stakeholders and local authorities through effective dissemination activities.

3.3. Promote public awareness of the uniqueness and importance of island biota, the impact of alien/invasive species and best practice for tourism-related activities for the long-term preservation of island biodiversity.

This will be achieved by organizing dissemination and educational activities for tourists, tourist companies, tour guides, school children and the general public at dedicated environmental education centers in Cyprus, in collaboration with conservation scientists and specialized teachers.

ibiogen

objectives