Transfer of Science or Research, Organisational matters

The meeting brought together 60 representatives from the 44 members of CETAF representing 77 institutions from 25 European countries and associated states. This meeting saluted the return of a significant number of Museum Directors, willing to be directly involved.

The outgoing President, Michelle J Price, left after almost ten years as the head of the Consortium, a decade of great evolution for CETAF: "We grew into the successful and dynamic community-oriented organisation that we are today. I am proud to see CETAF recognized as the European voice for collections and taxonomy as well as for geosciences, and I'm proud to be part of it."

The newly elected President of CETAF is Edwin Van Huis, Director General of the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden (NL), who has described the Natural History Museum Vienna as "the most beautiful natural history museum on the planet": "I'm honoured to become the new President of CETAF. This community has grown very much during the last period, and I think we can achieve even more. We must be aware that we have a strong influence and constant contact with millions of people in Europe, those who come to our facilities to discover the beauty of nature and the ecosystem. We shall be conscious of this influence and exploit it to raise awareness about taxonomy and biodiversity protection. I remember, almost twelve years ago, I was pushing for improving the Secretariat structure. I believe that gamble paid off and we can appreciate the results. My goal is to further impulse this evolution through a strategic vision of our role."

As Vice-president the community chose Jana Hoffmann, from the Natural History Museum of Berlin (D), while the new Secretary will be Eva Haffner from the Botanical Gardens of Berlin (D). The role of Treasurer will be for Francois Dusoulier, from the National Natural History Museum of Paris (F), and the Ordinary members are Gergely Babocsay (Hungarian Natural History Museum - H), Carole Paleco (Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences - BE), Stefan Orgard (Natural History Museum of Gothenburg - SE) and Gila Kahila Bar-Gal (Hebrew University of Jerusalem - IL). All the positions are covered on a voluntary basis.

But CETAF54 has been much more than elections.

The representatives had the opportunity to listen to Lara-Sophie Dey, the young researcher from LIB (Leibniz Institute for Analysis of Biodiversity Change) who won the 4th edition of the CETAF E-SCoRe Award, a prize that CETAF dedicates to the younger researchers in the field of taxonomy. The next edition will be dedicated to PostDoc.

The further analysis of CETAF's role in the international context, particularly within the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), was another important part of the meeting. CETAF is strongly committed to ensuring that taxonomic expertise is incorporated into the design of corresponding political and financial mechanisms and strategies. Gilles Doignon was also present as a representative of the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation.

New members will be joining the Consortium: the application received from the University of Navarra (E) has been accepted by the Assembly, while the University of Tirana (AL) will be an Observer for the next year.

A change to the membership fee structure should make it easier for smaller institutions or university collections to become direct members of CETAF in future. This will make CETAF more inclusive and strengthen the development of taxonomic expertise on a broad scale.

Right after the end of the GA, the Natural History Museum of Vienna hosted the TETTRIs Stakeholder Lab, an original moment of dialogue between science and industry organized in the context of the Horizon-funded project by the NHM Wien team. In a hybrid setting, it was explored where there are links between industrial value creation and taxonomic research under the premise of preserving biodiversity. It was also discussed how synergies between research and industry can raise social awareness of sustainability and the protection of biodiversity. Ines Mehu-Blantar says: "Language is a problem in itself; in an economic context, the first thing that comes to mind is EU taxonomy. That's why programmes such as "a taxonomist in residence" can help to raise awareness of biodiversity issues in addition to contributing specialist expertise."

Katrin Vohland, Director of the Natural History Museum Vienna, concluded: „The great engagement of our CETAF community as well as the interest and contribution from stakeholders representing companies such as Wienerberger, ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railway) or Boston Consulting Group show that biodiversity issues are increasingly taken seriously. Joint efforts are urgently needed for a sustainable human-nature relationship.“

The next CETAF General Assembly will be held in Oslo (Norway) on the 22nd and 23rd of May, 2024.

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Weitere Informationen:
https://cetaf.org/
https://tettris.eu/the-project/