Yes, they look complicated. We know. It won't look like this for the end user!
Arise is a unique and very ambitious vision: we're going to build an infrastructure that can automatically and rapidly identify all (multicellular) life in the Netherlands. Together with the consultancy M&I/Partners, we've now completed an architectural design study where we formulated how we plan to do it. Since Arise is new and complicated, so are its blueprints: the general overview alone is 40 pages.
That doesn’t mean, however, that everything is now set in stone: Arise will use an agile approach, designed for evolution. Merging DNA-sequencing, AI recognition of images and sound, ecological field data and natural history collections into one infrastructure is a huge and complex challenge. New use cases may develop in the future, and the program will face problems known and unknown.
Starting small
Dimitris Koureas, the chief information officer of Arise, quoted Dwight Eisenhower: “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” As such, Arise will use a series of small pilot projects and prototype solutions that will iterate, grow, and eventually become core components, connected into one interoperable infrastructure.
Five teams from four institutes, working together on one vision
Arise will be organized into five different multidisciplinary teams, taking care of sampling, AI, sequencing, monitoring sites where we test new methods such as digitized birdhouses and radar, and the so-called Biocloud, where all information comes together as a one-stop-shop for end users.
We already knew where we wanted to go. Now we also have a plan for getting there, and we’re starting to move. Will you join us?