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.
Details about who will serve on and lead key congressional committees with jurisdiction over scientific research and education are emerging. The House Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for allocating federal funding, including to federal science agencies and programs, will have new leadership and several new faces. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) will succeed Chairwoman Nita […]
According to a new NSF-funded study published in the journal mBio, a lack of clarity on the exact origins of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a glaring weakness in the current approach to pandemic monitoring and response. The paper, entitled Preserve a Voucher Specimen! The Critical Need for Integrating Natural History Collections in Infectious Disease […]
On January 14, 2021, the Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA), in partnership with the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), organized a joint discussion between the Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN) and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) on the future of […]
After months of unfruitful negotiations, congressional leaders reached a deal on a $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package a few days before the holidays. The economic relief measure was passed by Congress on December 21, 2020 along with the fiscal year (FY) 2021 omnibus spending package. After demanding changes to relief provisions in the congressionally approved […]
A new advisory report, entitled, Economic Analyses of Federal Scientific Collections, explores the economic benefits of Federal scientific collections. The report provides a framework for economic analyses, including methods for documenting long-term operating costs and benefits of collections. The study was commissioned by the Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections (IWGSC) part of the White […]
Over the past year several exciting conversations about the possibilities of digital representations of the billions of specimens currently held in the world’s natural history collections. Two concepts the Digital Specimen proposed by the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) in Europe and the Extended Specimen emerging from the Biological Collections Network (BCoN) in the […]
Recent articles published in the journal Bioscience call attention to the importance of natural history collections (NHC) in solving problems and the need to identify strategies for bolstering the nation’s biodiversity-enabled and biodiversity-related science. In an Editorial published in the November 2020 issue, former NSCA Executive Director Robert Gropp writes about the recognition of the […]
Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, US science leaders and others have expressed frustration with the lack of an informed and coherent federal response, a sentiment that echoes objections to the handling of other pressing issues, such as climate change. NSC Alliance has endorsed a Viewpoint article, penned by past presidents of the […]
Date: January 14, 2021 Time: 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern Time (includes a 15 minute break) Location: Online via Zoom We invite the Biological Collections community at-large to join the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA), and Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) for a joint discussion with the […]
The Natural Science Collections Alliance was among 170 science and research stakeholders to write to congressional leadership urging swift action to complete work on the fiscal year (FY) 2021 appropriations bills with increases for federal science agencies and to provide emergency supplemental funding for research relief in the wake of COVID-19. The groups argue, in […]