The 54th General Assembly of the Consortium of the European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF54) will be held on the 28th and 29th of November in Vienna, Austria, hosted by the Natural History Museum of Vienna.
This meeting will bring together around 60 representatives from the 44 members of CETAF that represent 77 institutions from 25 European countries and associated states.
Since it is the elections, CETAF54 will be a time of change for the Consortium. As happens every four years, CETAF will renew its Executive Body with a new President, Vice, Treasurer, Secretary and Ordinary Members.
But CETAF54 means much more than elections. There will be time to celebrate the new generations of biodiversity scientists and listen to Lara-Sophie Dey, the young researcher from LIB (Leibniz Institute for Analysis of Biodiversity Change), who won the 4th edition of the CETAF E-SCoRe Award. This year the prize has been dedicated to Ph.D. students and her paper on the Speckled buzzing grasshoppers was highly appreciated by the jury.
A relevant part of the meeting will be dedicated to further analysing the role of CETAF in the international context and especially under the Global Biodiversity Framework. A strong focus will be placed on supporting taxonomy and integrating taxonomy into political and funding mechanisms as well as hearing the views of the European Commission on this subject. Some new membership applicants will be presented, showing how the network is becoming bigger and stronger.
“We will be reporting about the achievements of these 10 years at CETAF54 with a professionalised the General Secretariat in Brussels and under the guidance of a strategic Executive Committee. This will be my last meeting as President of this great community” – says Michelle J. Price – “it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work at the heart of the community over the last ten years and to see CETAF grow into the successful and dynamic community-oriented organisation that it is today. I am proud to see CETAF recognized as the European voice for collections and taxonomy as well as for geosciences. CETAF has never been in a stronger position, and I am looking forward to seeing it grow in the future.”
Updates will be shared on the Social Media with the hashtag #CETAF54