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![[Darwin Information Project]](darwin.jpg "Darwin Information Project")
Darwin Information Project
The Darwin Information Project was implemented jointly by the University of Edinburgh and LTS International. The Darwin Information Project was designed with increasing the impact of and access to information derived from projects funded under Defra's Darwin Initiative. By 2009, the Darwin Initiative had supported 672 projects, in 148 countries with an overall investment by the UK Government of nearly £74 million. With each project producing numerous reports and other outputs it had become impractical to utilise the assess the overall impact of the Darwin Initiative beyond individual projects. The Darwin Information project was designed with two objectives, to:
- enhance access to information from Darwin Initiative projects; and
- promote systematic analysis and review of the whole programme to enhance its impact at the global level on the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Enhanced access to information
The Information Project promoted a major change in the way that information about projects was stored and processed. A new system was developed so that all information was stored electronically along with simple meta-data to link projects to countries, CBD issues and implementing partners. This meant that for the first time it was possible to retrieve information identifying all the projects in a country or region with the option to read or download documents linked to the projects. Other categories of meta-data permitted retrieval by researcher or institution. The system produced immediate benefits for a range of stakeholders who, for example, were able to look for clusters of projects in any country or region to enhance the country-level contribution to the CBD.Systematic analysis of Darwin Initiative projects
The Darwin Initiative was established as part of the UK Government's response to the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (The Rio Summit) which established the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The CBD, in common with many UN conventions, is complex and has a number of interrelated themes that member countries need to report against. Progress against the CBD's targets is intended to enhance impact on the conservation of biodiversity and through this human wellbeing. The Darwin Information Project was required to establish a routine methodology for the systematic review of projects and their contribution to the CBD. This process required the review of every project funded since the inception of the programme building upon the methodology developed for the earlier thematic review of Darwin projects on islands. In addition, new procedures were developed and incorporated into regular monitoring and evaluation of the programme to provide routine capture of this information for ongoing and future projects. The result is a system, which now permits stakeholders to identify which projects in the Initiatives portfolio of nearly 700 projects have contributed to various aspects of the CBD. In addition to searching for projects (or documents) using the set categories, it is also possible to search for documents or projects using free-text search of the comprehensive archive of documents now describing the programme.
Outcomes
The results from the Darwin Information Project is now available globally via the Initiative's website (www.darwin,defra.gov.uk). There has been very enthusiastic responses from stakeholders using the system, whether this comes from civil servants responding to ministerial questions, project staff wanting more information about related projects in the same country, or from other stakeholders wanting information about the role of research in the conservation of biodiversity.
Teh Darwin Information Project is a very good example of how enhancing access to information combined with the systematic review of research results can greatly enhance the impact of investment in research.