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.

News

New Initiative Aims to Incorporate Collections into Undergraduate Education

By NSCAPosted on Posted in News & Updates

AIM-UP! (Advancing the Integration of Museums into Undergraduate Programs) is a recently funded NSF Research Coordination Network focused on new ways of incorporating the extensive archives and cyberinfrastructure of natural history museums into undergraduate education.  There are five primary themes: Complex Biotic Associations Across Space and Time, Geographic Variation, Evolutionary Dynamics of Genomes, Biotic Response […]

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Act Now – Ask Your Senators to Pass America COMPETES Act Reauthorization This Year

By NSCAPosted on Posted in Activities & Events, News & Updates

Investing in basic research, improving science education, and supporting graduate fellowships — these are central elements for a vibrant scientific workforce.  However, many programs supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, and other federal agencies are at risk because of the pending expiration of the America COMPETES Act. First […]

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IMLS to Develop Web-Based Census of Museums

By NSCAPosted on Posted in News & Updates

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has announced that it has entered into a contract with the White Oak Institute and the American Association of Museums (AAM) to develop standard data definitions in collaboration with the museum field.  This work is part of the agency’s museum data collection project, Museums Count. “We are […]

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Herbarium Specimens Provide Potential Wealth of Climate Impact Data

By NSCAPosted on Posted in News & Updates

New research published in the Journal of Ecology demonstrates one of the many values of natural history collections.  Researchers in the United Kingdom have shown that preserved plant specimens can be used in place of field observations to determine the impacts of climate change on phenology.  The team compared specimens of early spider orchids (Ophrys […]

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NSC Alliance, 13 Other Science Organizations Ask Senate to Support Public Access to Independent Scientific Research Assessments of the Gulf of Mexico

By NSCAPosted on Posted in Activities & Events, Correspondence, News & Updates, Position Statements

On September 15, 2010, the Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSC Alliance) joined 13 other scientific organizations to express concern “with the issue of intellectual property rights and ownership of research results that arise in the aftermath of incidents caused by industry, most recently, the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.” In a letter […]

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Science Organizations Urge Russia to Preserve Pavlovsk Experiment Station and its Living Plant Collections

By NSCAPosted on Posted in Correspondence, News & Updates

On September 16, 2010, the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the Ecological Society of America (ESA) issued an open letter urging the Russian government to preserve the Pavlovsk Experiment Station in Saint Petersburg. The facility is home to more than 5,000 distinct varieties of fruit trees and plans, most of which are extinct […]

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NSF Searching for New Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources

By NSCAPosted on Posted in Activities & Events, News & Updates

Dr. Cora Marrett, Acting Director of the National Science Foundation, recently distributed a Dear Colleague letter announcing that NSF has initiated the process for selecting a new Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources.  The text of her letter follows: We are initiating a national search for the National Science Foundation’s Assistant Director for Education […]

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NSF Announces New Grant Support for Digitization of Biological Collections

By NSCAPosted on Posted in Activities & Events, News & Updates

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a new grant program, “Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections,” for scientific collections.  According to NSF documents, the program seeks to “create a national resource of digital data documenting existing biological collections and to advance scientific knowledge by improving access to digitized information (including images) residing in vouchered scientific […]

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NSC Alliance Survey Looks at Impact of Economy on Natural Science Collections – Complete the Survey Online Today

By NSCAPosted on Posted in Activities & Events, Correspondence, News & Updates

Two years ago as the economy was entering recession, the Natural Science Collections Alliance launched a survey to gather data on the effects of the economic downturn on natural science collections.  To further increase our understanding of how natural science collections are being impacted by and responding to current economic conditions, the NSC Alliance is […]

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