The area

The mountainous Caucasus region lies between the Black and the Caspian Sea, and is recognised as one of the global biodiversity hotspots. While it is rapidly modernising its research and educational capacity, Georgia (Sakartvelo) still lacks some key elements in research infrastructure and expertise. Targeted investment in science and education in Georgia is the best way to augment capacity for the essential biodiversity assessment in situ.

The project

Starting with the project "Assessment, Monitoring and Management of Caucasian Biodiversity", we plan to set up a Georgian-German Biodiversity Centre (GGBC) as a multinational approach to explore the biodiversity of the Caucasus area. The research centre will be located at Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia) and is to be jointly established and used by scientists from Germany and from Georgia as well as from neighboring countries, and will be open to researchers worldwide who are interested in Caucasian biota.
The centre is meant to foster international collaboration, will improve science infrastructures, engage in education, and explore Georgian biodiversity, with a strong, but not exclusive focus on molecular methods. The pilot project phase is an institutional partnership grant from BMBF. One of the main initial project targets is to start a Georgian Barcode of Life database. Future developments will include more partners from Georgia and Armenia, leading to a Caucasian Barcode of Life initiative.

In 2020, the impact of the activities within GGBC led BMBF to fund the project CaBOL - Caucasus Barcode of Life.