The Confederation supports SwissCollNet and its digital platform of natural science collections for research
The federal government is promoting an improved access to natural science collections with a total amount of CHF 12.37 million until 2024. The digitised collections provide unique data for climate, biodiversity or agricultural research, for example. To this end, the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) has launched the Swiss Natural History Collections Network, SwissCollNet, to collaborate with museums, universities, and botanical gardens in laying the foundations for the digitisation and long-term management and use of the collections.
With a treasure of more than 60 million specimens of animals, plants, fungi, stones, soil samples and fossils, Switzerland’s museums, universities, and botanical gardens store remarkably extensive collections, as pointed out by a 2019 SCNAT report. Nevertheless, only 17 percent of these objects are digitised. This means that a large part of the collections, containing unique data on the state of the environment, is hardly accessible for research.
The Confederation has now recognised the great need for action. With this funding support, SwissCollNet can now lay the foundations for the establishment and maintenance of a perennial digital platform for research on Switzerland’s biological and geological collections. A particular attention will be paid to the coordination with similar initiatives which are currently underway in many other countries, especially in Europe.
“With its financial support to launch the project, the Confederation is ensuring that Switzerland does not miss the boat. In the coming years, digital research platforms will emerge from the natural science collections and connect globally. This large pool of data will help us to better deal with pests, environmental toxins or the climate and biodiversity crisis” says biologist Christoph Scheidegger, President of SwissCollNet.
Temi associati
Les musées, jardins botaniques et universités suisses peuvent soumettre des projets au Réseau suisse des collections d'histoire naturelle (SwissCollNet) afin d'améliorer l’ accessibilité et la numérisation de leurs collections de sciences naturelles.
Immagine: Lisa Schäublin / NM Bern
Agriculture, protection de l’environnement, infrastructures de transport : de nombreuses découvertes dans ces domaines sont fondées sur des connaissances provenant des collections de sciences naturelles. Plus de 60 millions d’objets sont stockés dans les différents cantons suisses. Ils ne sont cependant que difficilement utilisables pour la recherche moderne, car ils sont déterminés et classifiés de manière lacunaire et seul 17% des données relatives à ces objets est digitalisé. Pour soutenir durablement la Suisse fédérale comme place scientifique et site d’innovation, il convient de préserver son savoir d’expert et de promouvoir une infrastructure virtuelle pour la mise en réseau des collections d’objets et des bases de données. Des chercheuses et chercheurs planifient une stratégie visant à protéger les collections et à encourager leur utilisation par les scientifiques, les milieux de l’économie et la société.
Biological and geoscience collections form an important part of our rich scientific heritage and provide the basis for much of what we know today about our planet and how we humans have influenced it. Natural history collections help us to understand our past and present better, thereby providing a basis for predicting the future. They also serve as biobanks for preserving the Earth’s organismic and genomic diversity, and must not only be maintained, but also supplemented so that scientists can continue to document and explore life on Earth. As new investigative techniques emerge, we can discover more from studying such intact and well-preserved collections.
Immagine: Akademien Schweiz
Contatto
Prof. Dr. Christoph Scheidegger
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (Eidg. Forschungsanstalt WSL)
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf