Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery
Discover biodiversity more quickly and comprehensively
Overview
Biodiversity is in crisis worldwide: ecosystems are increasingly threatened by climate change, habitat loss and human activities, while many species remain undiscovered. The Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery (CIBD) at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin addresses this challenge by accelerating the discovery, documentation and understanding of Earth's biodiversity before it is lost.
CIBD combines traditional biodiversity research with new technologies. High-throughput genomics, robotics and artificial intelligence enable the efficient processing and analysis of large biological samples. This approach helps to reveal the “dark matter” of biodiversity – highly diverse but poorly studied groups of organisms, particularly invertebrates.
The centre develops scalable approaches to species discovery and biodiversity assessment, spanning integrative taxonomy, phylogenetics, evolutionary biology and biodiversity informatics. Its goal is to build a global inventory of life as a foundation for research, conservation and environmental policy.
CIBD operates globally, with activities in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Neotropics, as well as research on urban biodiversity in Berlin. All data, technologies and workflows are openly accessible, supporting the development of open, data-driven biodiversity science.
Research
Key areas
Species discovery and taxonomy
Accelerating the discovery and description of unknown species, particularly among poorly studied ‘dark taxa’. This requires the development of automated systems, AI-supported analyses and global databases for the large-scale documentation of biodiversity.
Evolution and systematics
Investigation of evolutionary relationships and the origins of biodiversity using modern genomic methods.
Ecology and conservation
Studying species within their ecosystems to develop evidence-based strategies for the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources.
