In October 2025, our Scientific Head Guy Cochrane spoke at the Living Data 2025 conference in Bogotá. He shared a message that lies at the heart of the Global Biodata Coalition’s mission: to understand, support, and sustain the global network of biodata resources that underpin life science research.
That message bears repeating here, because it concerns something fundamental to our collective work — the GBC Inventory of Global Biodata Resources.
What is the GBC Inventory?
The Inventory is a living record of biodata resources from around the world — those databases, knowledgebases, and repositories that collect, curate, preserve, and share biological data. It represents a unique, global overview of the biodata ecosystem and serves as a foundation for many of the GBC’s activities, including our analyses of impact, interdependence, and sustainability.
Why the Inventory matters
By maintaining a comprehensive picture of the biodata landscape, the GBC can track the health and sustainability of critical data resources, identify gaps and overlaps across domains and regions and provide evidence to funders and policymakers about the essential role these resources play in advancing science and innovation.
In short, the Inventory helps ensure that the world’s biodata infrastructure is visible, valued, and supported for the long term.
How you can help
The inventory makes use of open bibliometric data, available from Europe PMC, to identify resources through articles published by resource owners to alert the scientific community to the availability and utility of the biodata resource. If you have published a paper that describes a biodata resource, you should find your resource named in our inventory. The most practical way to check whether a resource is included is to search our Global Inventory List on the GBC website where you can view the full list of resources currently captured and see whether your own is represented.
If your resource is not yet represented please drop us a line at:
The global biodata ecosystem is dynamic and diverse, and its strength depends on engagement from those who build and maintain it. Your input helps strengthen the completeness and accuracy of the Inventory, and ensures your resource’s contribution to global science is recognised.
Together, we can make sure that the global biodata infrastructure is not only visible, but resilient — built on shared understanding, mutual recognition, and sustained support.