Join the U.S. National Museum of Natural History – Smithsonian (NMNH), Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) for a two-day virtual event, Biodiversity Digitization: Celebrating a Decade of Progress, to be held September 22-23, 2021. The first two decades of the 21st century have seen huge gains in the digitization and […]
Fall 2021 International Workshop Series: How does sharing genetic data impact biodiversity science and conservation?
The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the USA Nagoya Protocol Action Group (USANPAG) are working with a number of member and sibling societies to raise awareness about policies that guide how we share and benefit from the study of biodiversity and sequence data. NSC Alliance is actively involved in the planning of these […]
Invitation: Phase 2 of Global Consultation on Digital Extended Specimens
Starting in mid-June, the alliance for biodiversity knowledge will convene a follow up to the consultation that was held in February and March to converge the ideas behind two related but distinct concepts: the Digital Specimen, proposed by the Europe-based Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), and the Extended Specimen, which emerged from the Biological Collections Network (BCoN). Phase 2 will […]
NSC Alliance Members: Help Inform Science Policy This Summer
The Natural Science Collections Alliance is pleased to announce that your organization, as an Alliance member, is eligible to participate in the 2021 Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event. This national initiative, organized by the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), and co-sponsored by NSC Alliance, is an opportunity for scientists from across the country […]
Reminder to Register: Fifth Annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference
The Florida Museum of Natural History in collaboration with iDigBio and the Natural Science Collections Alliance will be hosting the fifth annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference virtually on June 7-9, 2021. The conference will provide an important opportunity to explore digital data tools, techniques, research protocols, discoveries, and outcomes across all biodiversity research […]
SPNHC Natural History Education DemoCamp
The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) is organizing a Natural History Education DemoCamp on June 28-29, 2021. NSC Alliance is an event partner for the DemoCamp, which is designed to provide materials and resources to teachers, educators, and faculty looking for easy to adopt educational materials that engage students with the […]
Advocacy Alert: Speak Up for Museum Funding
Representatives Paul Tonko (D-NY), David McKinley (R-WV), Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Andy Barr (R-KY), and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are now circulating letters in their respective chambers calling for robust fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding for the Office of Museum Services (OMS) at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). […]
Action Alert: Ask Your Members of Congress to Cosponsor the RISE Act
On March 11, 2021, Congress enacted the latest COVID-19 relief package—the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319). The package includes $600 million for the National Science Foundation and $150 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, but it does not include research relief provisions at the levels requested by the scientific […]
USFWS Requests Recommendations for Amending CITES Appendices
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or CITES is an international treaty aimed at ensuring that international trade in listed animal and plant species does not threaten their survival. Currently there are 183 Parties to CITES, 182 countries, including the United States, and one regional economic integration organization, […]
Global Consultation on Converging Digital and Extended Specimens Begins
Over the past year there have been 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) […]