Open data and open collaboration

We treat the work as a digital public good. Open methods, open datasets, open source where it helps others extend or challenge what we publish. None of this is decoration — it is how a research nonprofit earns trust, and how the work outlives any single institution.

What we study

• Open data infrastructure. How ecological datasets are versioned, licensed, and stewarded — so they remain usable for decades, not just for the next paper.
• Collaboration with universities and labs. Co-authored research, shared benchmarks, reproducible methods, and joint training of the next generation of computational ecologists.
• Community-led monitoring. Working with rangers, fishers, farmers, pastoralists, and Indigenous and local communities — recognizing that the people closest to a place often see what satellites cannot.
• Open governance of shared resources. How a shared dataset is steered when many parties depend on it — and how to keep the work honest as it scales.

How we approach it

We publish what works and what does not. We credit collaborators by name. We do not ask communities to surrender data rights to participate, and we do not treat open access as a marketing claim — it is an obligation.

Read next

• Mapping nature — the places we work across.
• Conservation and food security — where the open work lands.