The European Distributed Institute for Taxonomy (EDIT) is a Network of Excellence (NoE) project in the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission. The project is led by the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris and unites 23 major Natural History institutions and herbaria in Europe with 2 USA institutions in an attempt to integrate their resources to make taxonomic research more efficient.

EDIT’s primary goal over its five year project period is to transform taxonomy into an integrated science by strengthening the technological and human resources of the participating institutions. Various collaborative efforts will be initiated at a technical and administrative level and research. One of the focal points of the project is the integration of IT departments and the creation of an “Internet Platform for Cybertaxonomy”, for which strong links with TDWG’s standardisation efforts are needed. The poster will inform participants in the TDWG meeting about the structure, membership and contact points for EDIT, a project which intends to create a durable and extendible infrastructure for taxonomic research.