Can we avert planetary mass extinction? Can we establish a global system to survey life on our planet?
Helping to answer these and other large-scale questions about life on Earth is the goal of BIOSCAN, a University of Guelph-led global biodiversity project that was awarded $24 million in federal funding this year.
Led by Dr. Paul Hebert, a professor in the College of Biological Science and director of U of G’s Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, a worldwide, interdisciplinary research team will use the award to advance this ambitious eight-year project begun in 2019.
BIOSCAN will inventory multicellular species, probe their interactions and dynamics, and enable researchers to help protect natural resources, ecosystems and human health.