The PNDB launches its new biodiversity metadata catalogue
The National Biodiversity Data Hub (PNDB - a hub of Data Terra, a thematic reference center for Recherche Data Gouv) is launching its new biodiversity metadata catalog.
This metadata catalog from the National Biodiversity Data Hub gathers and displays metadata harvested from the largest repositories and catalogs within the national community, in connection with major international programs.
Its objective is to facilitate the discovery of research datasets dedicated to biodiversity sciences.
In practical terms, a user can build a corpus of datasets from numerous sources - from both research and public policy - through a single search across a collection of over 13,000 metadata records, covering all levels of biological organization, from genes to socio-ecosystems.
The PNDB's semantic engine, based on a language model developed by Mistral, significantly simplifies the researcher's process. The scientist simply describes their needs in their own words (for example, by pasting a summary of their research project) for the platform to identify and suggest the most relevant datasets. The search can then be refined using filters based on the parameters found in the retrieved metadata records.
Each record provides the metadata for the corresponding dataset and, in most cases, direct access to the data files.