The International Union of Biodiversity and Health big data was set up in Beijing on October 14, which is based on Beijing Institute of Genome at Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with members coming from countries along the “Belt and Road”. Representatives from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Russia, Singapore, the United States and Switzerland attended the launching ceremony.

The union is an organization established under the framework of the project of “International biodiversity and health big data sharing”. The founding members include the Beijing Institute of Genome, Quaid-i-Azam University of Pakistan, Chulalongkorn University of Thailand, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology of Saudi Arabia and Institute of Genetics of Russian Academy of Sciences. The union aims to develop a platform for integration, application and sharing of the biodiversity and Health big data, pushing forward data sharing among the union and setting up a world-class big data center for biodiversity and health.

The biometrics big data mainly includes the biodiversity big data and the healthy big data. Big data includes the genome, mutagenesis, transcriptome and epigenetic data of endangered species, endemic rare species, paleontology, economic species and other important biological resources. The Big Data Center for Life and Health was set up by Beijing Institute of Genome at CAS in 2016, which has completed the first internationally recognized archiving database of primitive data in China. Based on the center and focused on the construction of “Belt and Road”, the union will orientate in Asia and influence the globe, pushing ahead the global biological big data sharing and enhancing China’s influence in the study of global biological big data.

The union will promote the integration, analysis and utilization of China's biological big data, as well as the in-depth analysis and transformation of biodiversity and health big data, and enhance the overall level of research and utilization of biodiversity and the health industry in Asia.

Source: China Daily