In 2023 the Centre for Biodiversity Analysis hosted Rudolf Meier from the Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery at Berlin’s Museum fur Naturkunde for discussions on “DiversityScanner”. The novel technology developed by Meier's and Christian Pylatiuk's (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) labs combines robotics, machine learning and high-throughput genomic sequencing to scan, classify and quantify invertebrate taxa from bulk environmental samples. 

We have continued to work with Meier and his collaborators to bring this technology and associated workflows to Australia. Lead by Megan Head and supported by Rachel Mapperson, we have initiated the establishment of the Australian Biodiversity Discovery Facility using the DiversityScanner technology based at ANU.

Our goal is to develop a facility where researchers and managers will be able to bring samples for processing and training and to experiment and co-develop projects for the monitoring and discovery of Australia’s biodiversity.

ABDF Open Day

The CBA now invites interested researchers, students, conservation managers and other stakeholders to an open day to hear about and observe the DiversityScanner and discuss potential projects to assist with testing and development of the technology for discovering, identifying and monitoring biodiversity.

Download and share the flyer

ANU Research Infrastructure Expo

The ABDF will also be at the 2024 ANU Research Infrastructure Expo on Wed 27 November. More information available here.