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 coronavirus pandemic has shown that biology and the economy are tightly linked. A new Washington Watch column in BioScience, Policy for Bioeconomic Growth, discusses the policy implications of growing and safeguarding the bioeconomy. Below is an excerpt. “Policymakers around the world increasingly look to biology to strengthen economies and promote national security and well-being. […]
The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN), Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSC Alliance), and Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) surveyed individuals affiliated with US biodiversity science collections to better understand the effects of COVID-19 related disruptions and closures on biodiversity research and education collections, and the people […]
On March 31, 2020, the NSC Alliance joined with the American Institute of Biological Sciences and Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections to remind federal science policy officials that biological collections can be used to better understand important societal problems, such as zoonoses like SARS-CoV-2. The groups highlighted the Extended Specimen Network (ESN) […]
The Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSC Alliance) has submitted testimony to the House Appropriations Committee, requesting Congress to provide the National Science Foundation with at least $9 billion in FY 2021 and highlighting the importance and role of natural history collections. “Natural science collections advance scientific research and education, and that informs actions to improve […]
On March 12, 2020, the NSC Alliance sent letters to key House and Senate leaders requesting that any economic measures crafted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic address the financial harm being felt by natural history museums, botanical gardens, and other scientific societies and research organizations, which are an integral part of the nation’s bioeconomy. […]
The NSC Alliance provided testimony to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees regarding fiscal year (FY) 2021 funding for certain programs that curate natural history collections within the Department of the Interior and Smithsonian Institution. Scientific collections, and the collections professionals and scientists who make, care for, and study these resources, are a vital component […]
The White House released the President’s Budget Request for fiscal year (FY) 2021 on February 10, 2020. The budget once again proposes deep cuts to science programs. The $4.8 trillion budget framework calls for cuts to most federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Geological Survey […]
Indiana University (IU), iDigBio, and the Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA) will hold the 4th annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference on June 1-3, 2020 at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. The theme for the conference is “Harnessing the Data Revolution and Amplifying Collections with Biodiversity Information Science.” Registration is now open and costs […]
The latest Index Herbariorum annual report, The World’s Herbaria 2019, is now available along with previous reports from 2016-2019 at http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/annual-report/. This report provides an annual snapshot of Index Herbariorum data that helps to track any changes in the number of herbaria and their specimens over time. “Participating institutions can use these data to put […]
Just prior to the expiration of the most recent stopgap funding resolution that kept the government running through December 20, 2019, both chambers of Congress passed two bundles of appropriations bills totaling approximately $1.4 trillion. The two compromise packages were signed into law by President Trump on December 20, 2019. As an indication of the […]