GBIF marks its 25th anniversary having grown from 21 founding countries to a network spanning 70 participating countries, 42 other associate participants and crossing 3.8 billion biodiversity records. A new overview, published in the Biodiversity Data Journal, traces GBIF's evolution from natural history collections to DNA and survey data, its role underpinning 15,000+ research papers and major policy frameworks, and the persistent challenges, including geographic and taxonomic data gaps, that remain as the organisation looks toward its next 25 years.

The Research Highlighter-MatchMaker Project, developed at the University at Albany, uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to help researchers identify funding opportunities, find collaborators, and connect with research communities. By integrating publication data from Scopus and funding information from SPIN, the platform delivers personalized recommendations through searchable tools and automated email alerts. Users can search by researcher, topic, or proposal text, enabling more accurate matching than traditional keyword-based systems. The technology has the potential to accelerate interdisciplinary collaboration, improve grant competitiveness, and expand access to research opportunities, particularly for early-career researchers. The patent-pending technology is at TRL 3 and available for licensing.