Dr. Antica Culina

The majority of my work has been based on long-term studies of birds, although I have worked on mammals too. Within the scope of improving data connectivity and collaboration between birds researchers, I have initiated SPI-Birds Network and Database. More recenty, my study system has become a research process itself.

As one of the pioneers in studying and promoting Open Science practices in ecological and evolutionary research I was one of the founding memebrs of  SORTEE  where I act as the EC memeber. I also act as a Associate Editor of the Journal of Animal Ecology and as advisory memeber of several Open Science initatives.

I currently hold a personal VENI research fellowship. Within this fellowship I work on

1. Pair-bonds beyond the breeding season – a new approach to understanding divorce and fidelity using the power of Open Data
2. SPI-Birds Network & Database, where I act as a manager and co-ordinator

I am also activly working on several other projects related to Open Science and meta-science in ecology, use of meta-anlaysis for informed decision making, and probelms related to uncertainty inherent to observational data

During my undergrad and Masters at the Univeristy of Zagreb, I was also working as an ornithologist at BIOM - Croatian association for biological research and Croatian Institute of Ornithology, where I still hold research ties. I did my Masters thesis on the urban bird fauna, linking habitat traits of urban parks to the diveristy of breeding and wintering birds.

After that, I have done a DPhil at the Univerity of Oxford (2010-2015), on pair fidelity and divorce in monogmous species, followed by a postdoc position at the the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford (2015-2016). During this position, I have established scientific background for a project on life-history and population dynamics in bats. During my PhD I have developed an interest in the Open Science, and I have took up an exciting position at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology to lead a project on Open Science and Meta-Analysis in ecology and evolution in 2016.

Affiliations & roles

• Associate Editor, Journal of Animal Ecology
• Founder and Executive director of SPI-Birds Network & Database

• Executive board and founding member, Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology (SORTEE)

• Advisory board & champion, FAIRsFAIR EU project
• Assessment committee, Open Science Fund of the Dutch Research Council
• Scientific Project Advisory Group, “Threatened Data for Threatened Species”, University of Greifswald, Germany
• Open Knowledge Maps, scientific advisor
• Go Fair Implementation Network - data discovery group

• Co-chair of Education Committee and Awards Committee of SORTEE

• Wildlife Research Conservation Unit (University of Oxford), Alumni

• Memeber of European Society for Evolutionary Biology, British Ecological Society, Research Data Alliance Europe
• Reviewer for around 30 journals (e.g. Nature, Ecology Letters, PLOS Biology, Nature Ecology and Evolution, eLife, Science Advances, Methods in Ecology and Evolution), mostly within areas of Evolution, Ecology, meta-analysis, ornithology, and open science.

Scholarships, Grants and Awards

• VENI research fellowship, personal grant (2018-2021)

• Lorentz Center Grant for organizing a workshop (2021)

• Dutch Data Prize of Research Data Netherlands for SPI-Birds project (2020)

• Open Science Use Case award for SPI-Birds project (2020)

• Cooperation and Scientific Meetings grant of NWO (2017)

• RDA (research data alliance) EU Early Career support Programme for the RDA 9th Plenary (2017)
• Conference travel grant, Welcome Trust, UK (2016)
• Student scholarship, University of Oxford (2012-2014)
• International Society for Behavioural Ecology student travel award (2014)
• Wolfson College, University of Oxford, conference grant (2013, 2014)
• Frankopan Fund Scholarship (2012)
• Graduate Research Training and Support Grant, University of Oxford (2012)
• City of Zagreb Student Scholarship (2005-2008)    
• The Ministry of Science Scholarship, Republic of Croatia (2004)        

Invited talks and seminars

Organizing symposiums and workshops

• FAIR Data for the Long Tail of Science, International Lorentz Centre workshop (2021, Sept)
• Designing a FAIR Data Discovery Ecosystem, International FAIR Convergence Symposium (2020)
• Data Lifecycles for Open Ecological and Biodiversity Research, Biodiversity Next Conference. Leiden, Netherlands (2019)
• Open Science Tools, Data and Technologies for efficient Ecological and Evolutionary research, symposium and workshops, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2018), initiator and organizer of the event, more about the here, and interview here
• Transparent meta-analysis and use of open data workshop. Open Science Tools, Data and Technologies for efficient Ecological and Evolutionary research, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2017). slides here 
• Navigating the unfolding Open Data landscape in Ecology and Evolution. Workshop at the British Ecological Society Annual meeting 2017. Ghent, Belgium (2017), slides here
• Transparent meta-analysis: a powerful tool for the researchers' toolbox. Workshop at the NIOO research days, Netherlands (2017)
• Evolutionary biology and open science: practices, challenges and opportunities. ESEB meeting, Groningen, Netherlands (2017), slides here 

Outreach Activities & Inclusive Science

• Culina A. (2020): How I managed my work and personal life as a sole parent during the pandemic, Nature. doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-02329-x

• Nature Careers Webcast (2020): Tips from Nature Careers on managing time and childcare during pandemic

• Culina, A., & Visser, M. E. (2020). When a shared vision becomes a reality: Connecting Data on individually marked birds. Animal ecology in focus.
• Culina, A. (2018): How I opened up towards Open Science: Data Dialogues. (Data Dialogues). Springer Nature.
• Culina, A. (2018): Navigating the Open Data landscape in Ecology and Evolution – lets make it work: Behind the paper. (Nature Ecology & Evolution Community: Behind the paper)).
• Culina, A. (2018): Open Science and the long-tail of scientists work: Let’s bridge the gap. ZWB Mediatalk.
• Do your D.A.N.C.E: Debunking sAme-sex aNimal prejudiCe and stereotypEs (2016)
• It’s Everyone’s D.A.N.C.E: Debunking homosexuAl humaN prejudiCe & stereotypEs (2016)
• The evolution of an alternative male mating strategy: Socialising with less attractive rivals (2012), Winner of the Evolution 2012 Video contest by National Evolutionary Synthesis Center - NESCent
• Science Slam Oxford: "Chicken sex: Variety is the spice of life" (2013)
• Birds of British Isles, Oxford University Museum of Natural History (2011)

Teaching

• Guest Lecturer, Life History course (MSc level): Wageningen University, Netherlands (2021)
• Guest Lecturer, Quantitative conservation ecology (MSc level), Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands (2019, 2020)
• College tutor, Quantitative methods (Undergrad in Biology), St Catherine’s College,  University of Oxford (2010-2015)
• Lecturer, Introduction to Ornithology, Oxford University Dept. for Continuing Education (2013-2015)
• Lecturer, Vertebrate Zoology & Animal Behaviour, Oxford Study Abroad Program (2013-2015)  
• Lecturer, Science Communication, Oxford Sparks (2015)

Conference talks (non invited)

• European Society for Evolutiary Bioogy meeting, Groningen, Netherlands (2017)
• Evolution 2917, Portland (2017) 
• British Ecological Society Annual Meeting, Liverpool, UK (2016), slides here
• Publishing Better Science through Better Data, Springer Nature, London, UK (2016): video of the talk here, slides here
• Digital Infrastructures for Research Conference, Krakow, Poland (2016), slides here 
• XVth European Society for Evolutionary Ecology meeting, Lausanne, Switzerland (2015)
• International Society for Behavioural Ecology conference, New York, USA (2014)
• Animal Behaviour Society Conference, Princeton University, USA (2014)
• 1st Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology, Ottawa, Canada (2012)