Jens-Christian Svenning was October 4, 2011 awardedwith the Ebbe Nielsen Prize. The award is given by GBIFwhich was founded in 2001 to encourage free and open access to biodiversity data, via the Internet. The award amounts to 30.000 euro. Jens-Christian Svenning's collaborative research with MADALGO researchers has contributed to the succesful award.