i4life: indexing the world's species

The Indexing for Life (i4Life) project interlinks and harmonises the taxonomic catalogues of six major Global Biodiversity Programmes (GBPs) with the Catalogue of Life. Its objectives are to:

  • help complete a common species catalogue;
  • allow gap analysis in our knowledge;
  • facilitate communication among scientists;
  • create a Virtual Research Community.

The Catalogue of Life consists of a single integrated checklist and taxonomic hierarchy for all the world's species. It is the most comprehensive and authoritative global index of species currently available.

i4Life Tools & Sevices

i4Life is establishing a set of workflows for data sharing and synergistic cooperation among these major biodiversity programmes around the world. This could ensure higher quality of taxonomy data in all the databases of the i4Life partners. Take a look at the Tools and Services of the i4Life project.

i4Life is a 3-year European e-Infrastructure project, co-funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

The loss of biodiversity constitutes a real threat to food security and ultimately human survival. i4Life is working on one solution by creating a comprehensive catalogue of all species known to science.