Stephanie Jurburg, Maria J. Alvarez Blanco , Antonis Chatzinotas, Anahita Kazem, Birgitta Koenig-Ries, Doreen Babin, Kornelia Smalla, Victoria Cerecetto, Gabriela Fernandez-Gnecco, Fernanda Covacevich, Emilce Viruel, Yesica Bernaschina, Carolina Leoni, Silvia Garaycochea, Jose. A Terra, Pablo FRESIA CORONEL, Eva Lucía Margarita Figuerola, Luis Gabriel Wall, Julieta Mariana Covelli, Ana Carolina Agnello, Esteban Emanuel Nieto, Sabrina Festa, Lina Edith Dominici, Marco Allegrini, María Celina Zabaloy, Marianela Estefanía Morales, Leonardo Erijman, Anahi Coniglio, Fabricio Dario Cassán, Sofia Nievas, Diego M. Roldán, Rodolfo Menes, Patricia Vaz Jauri, Carla Silva Marrero, Adriana Montañez Massa, María Adelina Morel Revetria, Ana Fernández-Scavino, Luciana Pereira Mora, Soledad Martínez, Juan Pablo Frene

Approaches to rapidly collect global biodiversity data are increasingly important, but biodiversity blindspots persist. We organized a three-day Datathon event to improve the openness of local biodiversity data, and facilitate data reuse by local researchers. The first Datathon, organized among microbial ecologists in Uruguay and Argentina assembled the largest microbiome dataset in the region to date, and formed collaborative consortia for microbiome data synthesis.