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.
On 22 April, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee passed a bill along party lines that would reauthorize funding for three federal programs that support basic research. The passage came after lengthy debate of 25 amendments. “The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act†is sponsored by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Science Committee. […]
Arizona State University and iDigBio will host a workshop on 15-17 September 2015 on “Managing Natural History Collections Data for Global Discoverability.†The event will take place in Tempe, Arizona. The deadline to apply is 1 May. More information is available at https://www.idigbio.org/content/managing-natural-history-collections-data-global-discoverability.
On March 20, 2015, the NSC Alliance provided testimony to the United States Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations. NSC Alliance expressed support for the Administration’s fiscal year 2016 budget request which, if enacted, would provide $7.724 billion to the U.S. National Science Foundation.
On 5 March 2015, the NSC Alliance joined other members of the natural science collections community in asking the White House Office of Management and Budget to deny or delay the Department of the Interior’s request to require non-federal collections to comply with a new information request.  Although the NSC Alliance recognizes and appreciates the […]
The Advisory Council for the Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance Research Coordination Network is undertaking a review of the Strategic and Implementation Plan for the Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance. The purpose of this review is to evaluate progress made to date and to identify potential gaps in these plans and priorities for future initiatives. To inform […]
The Department of the Interior is proposing to collect information from museums, university departments, and other curators of federal collections about their compliance with federal laws, regulations, and Departmental policy pertaining to the documentation, management, and preservation of Interior museum collections. The annual information collection is estimated to take 2 hours and 20 minutes per […]
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is seeking nominations of natural and social scientists to serve on committees that will create regional and sub-regional assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Groups are being convened for the Americas, Africa, Asia and Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia. The Ecological Society of America is […]
iDigBio, the Small Collections Network, and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections are conducting a survey of small natural history collections. If you are associated with what you define as a small collection in your domain, whether in a museum, academic institution, field or research station, or elsewhere, please take a few […]
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is seeking experts to review draft reports on pollinators and policy support. To register for the thematic assessment of pollinators, pollination and food production, complete the registration form at http://www.ipbes.net/component/content/article.html?layout=edit&id=634. To register for the policy support tools and methodologies for scenario analysis and modeling of biodiversity and […]
Four previously unknown cricket species were discovered by a researcher working with insect collections in Spain and Germany. Bruno Massa of the University of Palermo made the discoveries. “European museums preserved collections containing thousands of specimens coming from all the world in the last two centuries,” Massa said. “Of course, many of them still need […]