It is also possible to add DNA material to field observations. A DNA scanner cost around $1000 and attaches to laptops and cellphones so they could be used in the field. I'm not sure if amateurs can handle the software yet, but that could be fixed.
The most progress could come from my speciality: data mining scientific papers. This requires a few hundred terabyte of harddisks and a fast computer plus 2000 hours of programming. This would require a minimum of $20K or more in grants, crowdfunding or donations but it would yield an enormous boost of data.
Another addition could be scanning all the herbaria and botanical gardens, both photo's and DNA samples. Crowdsourcing by thousands of citizen scientist would be the way to go.
The most progress could come from my speciality: data mining scientific papers. This requires a few hundred terabyte of harddisks and a fast computer plus 2000 hours of programming. This would require a minimum of $20K or more in grants, crowdfunding or donations but it would yield an enormous boost of data.
Another addition could be scanning all the herbaria and botanical gardens, both photo's and DNA samples. Crowdsourcing by thousands of citizen scientist would be the way to go.