GrBOL: Launching the Greek node of iBOL

By Alexandros Triantafydillis

On the 11^th of June 2024, the University of Thessaloniki, partner of the Biodiversity Genomics Europe consortium (BGE), organised the inaugural online meeting focusing on the initiation of GrBOL, the Greek node of the Interntational Barcode of Life (iBOL). The meeting was initiated by Prof Alexandros Triantafyllidis, academic responsible for BGE at the University of Thessaloniki. Dr Dimitris Koureas, coordinator of the BGE project and member of the iBOL scientific committee, as well as Greece’s iBOL representative, Prof Panayiotis Madesis (University of Thessaly). All of them welcomed the event and further presented the opportunities that a national iBOL node offers, as well as the aims of the BGE project.

More than 120 researchers active in 18 Greek institutes, universities and organisations all over the country, covering a wide range of animal and plant species as well as different fields of study such as systematics, molecular biology, genomics and  bioinformatics expressed their interest in the node’s initiation and development, with more than 90 of them ultimately participating in this three hour online meeting.

Above: A (really!) full house for the GrBOL event last June 11th.

As a next step, the formation of an interim committee consisting of one representative of each Greek organisation was accomplished. At present, the committee designs the successive steps towards the node launch, leading to the next important milestone of the efforts: the first in person meeting of all interested Greek researchers and academics on the 7^th of October 2024 in Thessaloniki, at which date, our wish is to formally initiate GrBOL.

Despite the rich biodiversity of Greece, the country is still lacking a Greek barcoding node (Greek iBOL). The aim of BGE to develop model approaches to grow national-level barcoding capacity in Europe, along with the willingness of the Greek research community, indicate that the time for the GrBOL initiation is finally here.