3rd FADA workshop, SMEBD Annual Council Meeting and SMEBD Annual General Meeting at VLIZ.

From 17-21 June 2013, the third Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) workshop was hosted at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Oostende. The FADA portal brings together data on freshwater biodiversity and is considered as the taxonomic backbone for the freshwater community. The aim of the workshop was to bring together a number of experts on some targeted taxonomic groups, which are currently missing from the FADA portal, and to explore future options and a general direction to move forward and bring FADA to a higher level. During the workshop, options for collaboration and data exchange were explored and will be investigated more in depth in the near future. One collaboration option is with the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS): since some freshwater species are also included in WoRMS, this indicates a certain overlap with the FADA database. In conjunction with the FADA workshop, the Council of the Society for the Management of Electronic Biodiversity Data (SMEBD) held its annual Council meeting and its Annual General Meeting (AGM). During this meeting, Hendrik Segers was re-elected as chair of the Council.