A small 2002 Foundation grant to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, before publication of the first paper about DNA barcoding in the scientific literature, examined what proved to be the productive idea of using a short DNA sequence from a standardized region of the genome as a diagnostic "biomarker" for species. Since different species have different DNA barcodes, barcoding can be used to identify specimens and discover new species. A 2004 grant to the Smithsonian Institution led to the formation of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL), an international initiative devoted to developing barcoding as a global standard in taxonomy. CBOL now includes more than 130 member organizations from some 40 countries, including museums, herbaria, zoos, research organizations, government agencies and companies. CBOL has launched global campaigns to barcode the estimated 10,000 birds and 20,000 marine fishes of the world, established a public repository for barcode data, and formed working groups to advance technology development and improve analysis. This 2006 grant supports CBOL with its plans to stimulate the development of tools for barcoding, promote global participation, and complete a demonstration project on a societally important group such as mosquitoes or fruit flies so that an interested user could quickly assign any unidentified specimen to its correct species. The goal is to increase the barcode records in public databases from 50,000 specimens in 10,000 species to 500,000 records in 50,000 species. Project Director: Scott E. Miller, Chair, Department of Systematic Biology, National Museum of Natural History.

With this grant, the Sloan Foundation is partnering with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to launch the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). As envisioned in a 2002 essay by the Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson, "Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth, available everywhere by single access on command. The page contains the scientific name of the species, a pictorial or genomic presentation of the primary type specimen on which its name is based, and a summary of its diagnostic traits. The page opens out directly or by linkage with other databases…It comprises a summary of everything known about the species' genome, proteome, geographic distribution, phylogenetic position, habitat, ecological relationships, and, not least, its perceived practical importance for humanity. The page is indefinitely expansible. Its contents are continuously peer-reviewed and updated with new information. All the pages together form an encyclopedia, whose content is the totality of comparative biology…" The EOL will deliver online encyclopedic knowledge of biodiversity for every known species.

About two million living species of animals, plants, and other forms of life are now known. Millions more remain to be discovered and identified. Aggregation technology, which automates the ability to produce a "provisional" page for each species by filtering and integrating digitized information, is the fundamental software innovation that makes the EOL possible. Engaging experts around the world to check and improve synthesized pages in a Wikipedia-like model makes the cost of producing the EOL manageable. The aim is to have 1 million high-quality pages within 5 years and a complete encyclopedia of known species within 10 years. The project involves development and maintenance of aggregation software to synthesize provisional pages for each species; activities to stimulate improvement of the pages in a Wikipedia-like way; scanning and digitization of past literature to deepen content behind the portal page for each species; outreach to the general public as well as cultivation of use of the EOL for both formal and informal science education; promotion of advances in biodiversity science that the EOL makes possible; and overall coordination and management. A set of five "Cornerstone" institutions has been formed to carry the project forward: Harvard University, Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). The BHL is a consortium of ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions with relevant collections of books and journals about biodiversity. (For members and other information about BHL see the website www.bhl.si.edu.) The five Cornerstone institutions will jointly govern a secretariat, based at the Smithsonian, that will manage creation of the EOL. The MBL will lead for software, Field for promotion of scientific discovery based on the EOL, Harvard and the Smithsonian for education and outreach, and the BHL for scanning and digitization. The EOL has prepared a 5-year plan whose total estimated cost is $45 million. The MacArthur Foundation will provide an initial $10 million to launch the project. The Sloan Foundation grant will cover costs of the project secretariat for its first two years as well as some other costs of launching the project, and will allow the EOL to recruit its core staff members. Project Director: Cristian Samper, Director, National Museum of Natural History.