Associating Occurrences with Genes, Phenotypes, and Environments through the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo)

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) Research Infrastructure (RI) is presently in its preparatory phase. DiSSCo is developing a new distributed RI to operate as a one-stop-shop for the envisaged European Natural Science Collection (NSC) and all its derived information. Through mass digitisation, DiSSCo will transform the fragmented landscape of NSCs, including an estimated 1.5 billion specimens, into an integrated knowledge base that will provide interconnected evidence of the natural world. Data derived from European NSCs underpin countless discoveries and innovations, including tens of thousands of scholarly publications and official reports annually (supporting legislative and regulatory processes on sustainability, environmental change, land use, societal infrastructure, health, food, security, etc.); base-line biodiversity data; inventions and products essential to bio-economy; databases, maps and descriptions of scientific observations; educational material for students; and instructive and informative resources for the public. To expand the user community, DiSSCo will strengthen capacity building across Europe for maximum engagement of stakeholders in the biodiversity-related field and beyond, including industry and the private sector, but also policy-driving entities. Hence, it is opportune to reach out to relevant stakeholders in the European environmental policy domain represented by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The EEA aims to support sustainable development by helping to achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public. The EEA provides information through the European Environment Information and Observation System (Eionet). The aim of this white paper is to open the discussion between DiSSCo and the EEA and identify the common service interests that are relevant for the European environmental policy domain. The first section describes the significance of (digital) Natural Science Collections (NHCs). Section two describes the DiSSCo programme with all DiSSCo aligned projects. Section three provides background information on the EEA and the biodiversity infrastructures that are developed and maintained by the EEA. The fourth section illustrates a number of use cases where the DiSSCo consortium sees opportunities for interaction between the DiSSCo RI and the Eionet portal of the EEA. Opening the discussion with the EEA in this phase of maturity of DiSSCo will ensure that the infrastructural design of DiSSCo and the development of e-Services accommodate the present and future needs of the EEA and assure data interoperability between the two infrastructures. The aim of this white paper is to present benefits from identifying the common service interests of DiSSCo and the EEA. A brief introduction to natural science collections as well as the two actors is given to facilitate the understanding of the needs and possibilities in the alignment of DiSSCo with the EEA.

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Identification of provisional Centres of Excellence for digitisation of European natural science collections

Research Ideas and Outcomes ◽

10.3897/rio.6.e57750 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Author(s):

Katherine Dixey ◽

Matt Woodburn ◽

Helen Hardy ◽

Laurence Livermore ◽

Vincent Smith

Keyword(s):

Distributed System ◽

Natural Science ◽

The Creation ◽

Scientific Collections ◽

Centres Of Excellence

Digitisation of natural science collections is fundamental to the vision for the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), and given the low proportion of collections digitally accessible, it is proposed that ‘Centres of Excellence’ be developed to accelerate the creation of digital copies of original specimens. Within the ICEDIG project, a team of scientists from across the consortium explored the concept of Centres of Excellence and have constructed a toolset to help identify these centres to support the development of DiSSCo. This report documents this process and describes the toolset.

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Technical capacities of digitisation centres within ICEDIG participating institutions

Research Ideas and Outcomes ◽

10.3897/rio.6.e55522 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Naomi Cocks ◽

Laurence Livermore ◽

Vincent Smith ◽

Matt Woodburn

Keyword(s):

Distributed System ◽

Natural Science ◽

Large Scale ◽

Practical Reasons ◽

Institutional Collaboration ◽

Level Of Aggregation ◽

Scientific Collections ◽

Future Work

DiSSCo, the Distributed System of Scientific Collections, is seeking to centralise certain infrastructure and activities relating to the digitisation of natural science collections. Deciding what activities to distribute, what to centralise, and what geographic level of aggregation (e.g. regional, national or pan European) is most appropriate for each task, was one of the challenges set out within the EC-funded ICEDIG project. In this paper we present the results of a survey of several European collections to establish current digitisation capacity, strengths and skills associated with existing digitisation infrastructure. Our results indicate that most of the institutions surveyed are engaged in large-scale digitisation of collections and that this is usually being undertaken by dedicated teams of digitisers within each institution. Some cross institutional collaboration is happening, but this is still the exception for a variety of funder and practical reasons. These results inform future work that establishes a set of principles to determine how digitisation infrastructure might be most efficiently organised across European organisations in order to maximise progress on the digitisation of the estimated 1.5 billion specimens held within European natural science collections.

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A choice of persistent identifier schemes for the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo)

Research Ideas and Outcomes ◽

10.3897/rio.7.e67379 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Author(s):

Alex Hardisty ◽

Wouter Addink ◽

Falko Glöckler ◽

Anton Güntsch ◽

Sharif Islam ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Distributed System ◽

Natural Science ◽

Open Science ◽

Scientific Data ◽

Research Infrastructure ◽

Qualitative Assessment ◽

Digital Representations ◽

Persistent Identifier ◽

Community Trust ◽

Scientific Collections

Persistent identifiers (PID) to identify digital representations of physical specimens in natural science collections (i.e., digital specimens) unambiguously and uniquely on the Internet are one of the mechanisms for digitally transforming collections-based science. Digital Specimen PIDs contribute to building and maintaining long-term community trust in the accuracy and authenticity of the scientific data to be managed and presented by the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) research infrastructure planned in Europe to commence implementation in 2024. Not only are such PIDs valid over the very long timescales common in the heritage sector but they can also transcend changes in underlying technologies of their implementation. They are part of the mechanism for widening access to natural science collections. DiSSCo technical experts previously selected the Handle System as the choice to meet core PID requirements. Using a two-step approach, this options appraisal captures, characterises and analyses different alternative Handle-based PID schemes and the possible operational modes of use. In a first step a weighting and ranking the options has been applied followed by a structured qualitative assessment of social and technical compliance across several assessment dimensions: levels of scalability, community trust, persistence, governance, appropriateness of the scheme and suitability for future global adoption. The results are discussed in relation to branding, community perceptions and global context to determine a preferred PID scheme for DiSSCo that also has potential for adoption and acceptance globally. DiSSCo will adopt a ‘driven-by DOI’ persistent identifier (PID) scheme customised with natural sciences community characteristics. Establishing a new Registration Agency in collaboration with the International DOI Foundation is a practical way forward to support the FAIR (findable, accessible interoperable, reusable) data architecture of DiSSCo research infrastructure. This approach is compatible with the policies of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and is aligned to existing practices across the global community of natural science collections.

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Archibald Menzies's visit to Isla del Coco, January 1795

Archives of Natural History ◽

10.3366/anh.2013.0144 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 149-156 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

E. Charles Nelson

Keyword(s):

Type Specimen ◽

Herbarium Specimens ◽

Scientific Collections

Archibald Menzies landed twice at Chatham Bay, Isla del Coco, in January 1795. A small number of his herbarium specimens are extant, including the type specimen of Callicosta rugifolium (Bryophyta; Daltoniaceae) and perhaps also that of Octoea insularis (Angiospermae; Lauraceae), indicating that he was probably the first to make scientific collections on the island.

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The publications and collections of Louis-Albert Necker (1786–1861)

Archives of Natural History ◽

10.3366/anh.2015.0279 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 66-75 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

John Hollier ◽

Anita Hollier ◽

Cédric Schnyder

Keyword(s):

Necker Cube ◽

Optical Illusion ◽

Full List ◽

Scientific Collections ◽

Isle Of Skye

The Swiss geologist and mineralogist Louis-Albert Necker belonged to a family rich in scientific celebrities. Though a professor at the Académie de Genève for 25 years and author of numerous publications, he is mainly remembered today for his description of the “Necker cube” optical illusion and for leaving Geneva to spend the last 20 years of his life in Portree on the Isle of Skye. As a first step towards assessing Necker's contribution to science, a full list of his publications is presented, with comments about their citation in previous bibliographies and about published translations and abridgements. Information about the surviving specimens from his scientific collections, most of which are in the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Genève, is also presented.

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