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.
Science Insider recently reported on the impacts of the ongoing war in Ukraine on museum collections. The article recounted how researchers at the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center a bat rescue and research facility in Kharkiv, Ukraine scrambled to protect, hide, or evacuate irreplaceable specimens, collections, and data. Conservation biologist Anton Vlaschenko moved the center’s collection of […]
The NSC Alliance has joined an international coalition of 26 scientific societies and organizations and 122 scientific researchers and professionals in urging continued open access to digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources. In a letter to National Focal Points to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the coalition has shared recommendations to inform ongoing […]
The NSC Alliance has submitted testimony to the House Appropriations Committee regarding fiscal year (FY) 2023 funding for programs that curate natural history collections within the Department of the Interior and Smithsonian Institution. “Scientific collections are critical infrastructure for our nation’s research enterprise, argued NSC Alliance. They are a national treasure that help support the […]
Members of NSC Alliance are invited to participate in the 2022 Virtual Advocacy Event organized by the American Institute of Biological Sciences on April 25-29, 2022. Meet with your members of Congress virtually to help them understand the important role the federal government plays in supporting the biological sciences. Advocate for federal investments in […]
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 […]