Get Involved

Based on four years of design research, this Design Brief inspires more ecologically responsive data technologies. This project is led by Michelle Westerlaken, postdoctoral Impact Fellow at the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, and part of this work was done in collaboration with member companies.


A design brief is a short outcome document meant that sparks new forms of innovation. It is written to inspire designers, project managers, developers, and funders to propose biodiversity data practices that better align with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s vision.


Do you work on biodiversity data systems, platforms, or features and would like to talk more? Are you organizing a hackathon and want to tailor this brief to your event? Are you writing a funding call and want to incorporate the Brief into your proposal? Do you have examples that might fit with this approach that can be featured on this site? Or do you have any other ideas to collaborate?


Please get in touch! Via email, or via LinkedIn.


Research Background


All details on the research methods, the data, and the rationale that inspired this Design Brief, can be found in the Companion Paper. This work is supported by the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium.

Prior research connected to this project:

  • Westerlaken, M. (2024). Digital Twins and the Digital Logics of Biodiversity. Social Studies of Science, 54(4), 574-597. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127241236809

  • Westerlaken, M. (2025). Designing Biodiversity Systems via Digital Kinships: Insights from Community Data Processes and Creative Practice, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Springer Nature, 34, 835–869. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-025-09524-2


Acknowledgements

Thanks to all research participants who shared their experiences with biodiversity data technologies. These currently consist of corporate biodiversity specialists, but also connect to prior research with technology developers and restoration communities. Special thanks to Amanda Bischoff for collaborating on data gathering at the MCSC through interviews, workshops, and symposium sessions, and for offering valuable suggestions in writing the companion paper together with the other co-authors. Thanks to those co-authors as well, including Krishen Mertens and Alejandro Pertusa, for your specialized input and our inspiring conversations. Thanks also to Marieke Meesters and Erik Sandelin for their great suggestions to improve the Design Brief. Thanks to everyone at the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium for the many engaging conversations that enriched this work. Thanks to designers and other future-makers around the world for experimenting with innovative approaches to creating more vital biodiversity systems. Finally, thanks to all ecosystem entities, humans and other species, who are trying to co-exist on this planet, and can thereby continuously inspire new data practices.