Connecting biodiversity biobanks in the global infrastructure landscape

The Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN) is an international consortium of biodiversity biobanks and collections that strives to standardize and exchange best practices, and to share information on molecular biodiversity resources held in repositories around the globe. GGBN’s goal is to bridge the gap between biological material stored in these biobanks and the broader research community by establishing a searchable index of the world’s genomic resources, openly available to the scientific community and all stakeholders. Here, we provide examples of how GGBN interacts synergistically with other biodiversity programs and initiatives to (1) connect researchers with physical materials linked to rich, highly structured contextual metadata and (2) strengthen the biobanking community.