Natural Science Collections Alliance
Our members are part of an international community of museums, botanical gardens, herbariums, universities and other institutions that house natural science collections and utilize them in research, exhibitions, academic and informal science education, and outreach activities.
The Field Museum in collaboration with iDigBio and NSC Alliance is hosting the sixth annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, Enhancing & advancing the quality of digitized data, on May 23-25, 2022. This year’s event with be a virtual meeting. The conference will again provide an important opportunity to explore digital data tools, techniques, […]
In 2021, the NSC Alliance engaged in a number of efforts to elevate the profile of natural history collections with policymakers, researchers, and the general public. Read our annual summary.
The National Science Foundation-supported Texas and Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria (TORCH) makes the information contained in natural history collections readily available to researchers, educators, land managers, and the general public. The TORCH project is digitizing and serving online the data from ca. 2 million herbarium specimens from the South-Central United States, unlocking the information […]
According to a recent economic report published in the journal Research Ideas and Outcomes, digitizing London’s Natural History Museum’s entire collection could contribute over 2 billion over 30 years to the global economy. The Natural History Museum, London, has been creating digital data about collections through its Digital Collections Programme since 2014. The Museum has […]
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Review Committee is scheduled to hold six virtual public meetings on January 31, 2022; February 14, 2022; February 28, 2022; March 10, 2022; March 15, 2022; and March 21, 2022. All meetings will be held from 3:00 PM until approximately 6:00 PM Eastern Time. The agenda […]
The Committee on House Administration held a hearing on December 16th on the threats posed by climate change on the collections and facilities of the Smithsonian Institution. In Washington, and in particular on the National Mall, the effects of climate change most significantly would be in the form of sea level rise and flooding, said […]
The Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) an alliance of more than 130 professional organizations, scientific societies, universities, and businesses has sent a letter to lawmakers urging them to complete conference negotiations on the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act or USICA (S. 1260) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Future Act (H.R. 2225), […]
With support from the National Science Foundation, the American Institute of Biological Sciences and the USA Nagoya Protocol Action Group are organizing an online workshop series to explore how the international scientific community can study biodiversity in the changing landscape of international policy. Recordings from the first five sessions in this series are now available […]
After prolonged negotiations, a scaled down version of President Biden’s Build Back Better spending plan passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier today. The $1.75 trillion measure is primarily focused on social welfare and climate change programs and includes some funds for research. The framework passed by the House is a trimmed down version of […]
A move to include a high profile innovation initiative in the annual defense authorization bill created high stakes tensions on Capitol Hill earlier this week. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) moved to include the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, formerly referred to as the Endless Frontier Act, as an amendment to the National Defense […]