The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, and another botanist, Dr Temitope Onuminya, have won the 2021 Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) grants.

Mrs Nonye Oguama, a Principal Assistant Registrar, Corporate Affairs of the institution, made the disclosure in a statement on Saturday in Lagos.

According to Oguama, the awards are part of the 2021 Biodiversity Information for Development (BID) programme, funded by the European Union.

Ogundipe, a Professor of Botany, won a national level grant of 38,000 euros for his project proposal: “Implementation of the Biodiversity Information and Data System for Coastal Ecosystem in Nigeria”.

Onuminya, on the other hand, won an institutional level grant of 18,850 euros for implementation of a BID project proposal: “Expanding the Visibility of the Lagos Herbarium through Digitisation and Mobilisation of Plant Specimen Data”.

”The University of Lagos is rejoicing with them (mentor and mentee) and wishes them successful implementation of their proposals,” Oguama said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the GBIF, an international organisation with Secretariat in Copenhagen, focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available through the internet.

It provides human resources and technical infrastructure enabling the publication of and access to large volumes of data gathered over centuries about the earth’s species.